title: Variability of a glucose phosphotransferase system permease in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Small Colony.
abstract: Intraclonal antigenic variation in pathogenic mycoplasma species is considered an important feature of host-pathogen interaction. Such intraclonal protein variation was observed for the interaction of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Small Colony, the agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, with mAb 3F3. Colony immunostaining allows the definition of 3F3 ON- and 3F3 OFF-type variants, which revert at low frequency. Targets of mAb 3F3 were shown to be surface located, and resided on multiple polypeptides in the 58-68 kDa size range. Phage display and a genomic database were combined to determine the gene encoding the proteins recognized by mAb 3F3. A gene encoding the putative permease of the glucose phosphotransferase system was identified. Genome sequence analysis of strain PG1 revealed two highly similar copies of this gene, resulting from duplication of the chromosomal region carrying the gene. Southern blot analysis demonstrated the presence of this duplication in almost every African strain tested, but not in European strains. DNA analysis revealed that ON/OFF switching is governed by a base substitution occurring upstream of the coding region for the 3F3 epitope. This event generates a stop codon that results in the premature termination of the PtsG protein.
authors.affiliation: UMR Mycoplasmoses des Ruminants, AFSSA-Site de Lyon, 31 av Tony Garnier, FR-69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gaurivaud
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.forename: Dominique Le
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Grand
authors.forename: Joakim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Westberg
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Solsona
authors.forename: Karl-Erik
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poumarat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D020440:Gene Duplication; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D006041:Goats; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009176:Mycoplasma mycoides / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D010731:Phosphoenolpyruvate Sugar Phosphotransferase System / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011002:Pleuropneumonia, Contagious / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D010731:Phosphoenolpyruvate Sugar Phosphotransferase System; C031629:phosphoenolpyruvate-glucose phosphotransferase