Porphyromonas gingivalis genes isolated by screening for epithelial cell attachment.
Porphyromonas gingivalis is associated with chronic and severe periodontitis in adults. P. gingivalis and the other periodontal pathogens colonize and interact with gingival epithelial cells, but the genes and molecular mechanisms involved are unknown. To dissect the first steps in these interactions, a P. gingivalis expression library was screened for clones which bound human oral epithelial cells. Insert DNA from the recombinant clones did not contain homology to the P. gingivalis fimA gene, encoding fimbrillin, the subunit protein of fimbriae, but showed various degrees of homology to certain cysteine protease-hemagglutinin genes. The DNA sequence of one insert revealed three putative open reading frames which appeared to be in an operon. The relationship between P. gingivalis attachment to epithelial cells and the activities identified by the screen is discussed.
Duncan
M J
MJ
Department of Molecular Genetics, Forsyth Dental Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Emory
S A
SA
Almira
E C
EC
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004848:Epithelium / Q000382:microbiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D016966:Porphyromonas gingivalis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012995:Solubility
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial