title: Characterization of gram-positive tellurite resistance encoded by the Streptococcus pneumoniae tehB gene.
abstract: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a Gram-positive bacterium which is naturally resistant to tellurite. In this study, we cloned and sequenced a homologue of the Escherichia coli tellurite resistance gene tehB from S. pneumoniae. It encoded a protein of 284 amino acids which is 86 residues longer than E. coli TehB, but similar in size to Haemophilus influenzae TehB and Eikenella corrodens hemagglutinin (Hag1) as well as homologues from Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis. The S. pneumoniae TehB displayed 46-58% identity (52-68% similarity) to these proteins. The results in this study showed that the S. pneumoniae tehB alone not only conferred on E. coli high level resistance to tellurite, but also caused filamentous morphology in E. coli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D013691:Tellurium / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C119920:tellurite resistance protein B, E coli; C026660:tellurous acid; D013691:Tellurium