Genetic basis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae lipooligosaccharide antigenic variation.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae lipooligosaccharide (LOS) undergoes antigenic variation at a high rate, and this variation can be monitored by changes in a strain's ability to bind LOS-specific monoclonal antibodies. We report here the cloning and identification of a gene, lsi-2, that can mediate this variation. The DNA sequence of lsi-2 has been determined for N. gonorrhoeae 1291, a strain that expresses a high-molecular-mass LOS, and a derivative of this strain, RS132L, that produces a truncated LOS. In the parental strain, lsi-2 contains a string of 12 guanines in the middle of its coding sequence. In cells that had antigenically varied to produce a truncated LOS, the number of guanines in lsi-2 was altered. Site-specific deletions were constructed to verify that expression of a 3.6-kDa LOS is due to alterations in lsi-2.
Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA.
R J
RJ
Danaher
J C
JC
Levin
D
D
Arking
C L
CL
Burch
R
R
Sandlin
D C
DC
Stein
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D017421:Sequence Analysis
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D000939:Epitopes; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; C023023:lipid-linked oligosaccharides