title: Molecular analyses of glucosyltransferase genes among strains of Streptococcus mutans.
abstract: Three glucosyltransferase (GTase) genes (gtfB, gtfC and gtfD) were cloned and sequenced from clinically isolated strains of Streptococcus mutans MT8148 (serotype c), MT4239 (c), MT4245 (e), MT4467 (e) and MT4251 (f), respectively. Comparison of the gtf genes revealed that interstrain difference of gtfB and gtfD was limited, while gtfC showed significant interstrain variations. Similar to gtfB and gtfD, gtfC possessed five direct repeats composed of homologous unit in the carboxyl-terminal portion. The repeating unit consisted of 63-65 amino acid residues and is responsible for glucan binding. The gtfC gene from S. mutans MT4245 lacked the fourth unit. Multiple alignment with the gtf sequence of strain GS-5 (c) revealed several changes in these gtf genes due to frameshift mutations. The peptides encoded by the gtfB, gtfC and gtfD genes of GS-5 were 1, 80, and 32 amino acid residues shorter than those of the test strains except strain MT4245.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pedodontics, Osaka University Faculty of Dentistry, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Terao
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawabata
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ooshima
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sobue
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hamada
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004274:DNA, Recombinant / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D005964:Glucosyltransferases / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D005964:Glucosyltransferases