title: Proteus mirabilis fimbriae: N-terminal amino acid sequence of a major fimbrial subunit and nucleotide sequences of the genes from two strains.
abstract: Proteus mirabilis, a common cause of urinary tract infection in hospitalized and catheterized patients, produces mannose-resistant/klebsiella-like (MR/K) and mannose-resistant/proteus-like (MR/P) hemagglutinins. The gene encoding the major structural subunit of a fimbria, possibly MR/K, was identified in two strains. A degenerate oligonucleotide probe based on the N terminus of the Proteus uroepithelial cell adhesin and antiserum raised against the denatured polypeptide were used to screen a cosmid gene bank of strain HU1069. A cosmid clone that reacted with the probe and antiserum was identified, and a fimbria-like open reading frame was determined by nucleotide sequencing. The predicted N-terminal amino acid sequence of the processed polypeptide, ENETPAPKVSSTKGEIQLKG (residues 23 to 42), did not match the uroepithelial cell adhesin N terminus but, rather, matched exactly the N-terminal amino acid sequence of a polypeptide with an apparent molecular size of 19.5 kDa isolated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of a fimbrial preparation from strain HI4320 expressing MR/K hemagglutinin. By using an oligonucleotide from the HU1069 open reading frame, the fimbrial gene was isolated and sequenced from a cosmid gene bank clone of strain HI4320. A 552-bp open reading frame predicts a 184-amino-acid polypeptide including a 22-amino-acid hydrophobic leader sequence. The unprocessed polypeptide is predicted to be 18,921 Da; the processed polypeptide is predicted to be 16,749 Da. The predicted amino acid sequence of the polypeptide encoded by the gene, designated pmfA, displayed 36% exact matches with the mannose-resistant fimbrial subunit encoded by smfA of Serratia marcescens but only 15% exact matches with the predicted sequence encoded by mrkA of Klebsiella pneumoniae.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201.
authors.forename: F K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Bahrani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hull
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Massad
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Mobley
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry*; D015723:Gene Library; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006388:Hemagglutinins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D011513:Proteus mirabilis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006388:Hemagglutinins; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides