title: High frequency, spontaneous motA mutations in Campylobacter jejuni strain 81-176.
abstract: Campylobacter jejuni is an important cause of bacterial diarrhea worldwide. The pathogenesis of C. jejuni is poorly understood and complicated by phase variation of multiple surface structures including lipooligosaccharide, capsule, and flagellum. When C. jejuni strain 81-176 was plated on blood agar for single colonies, the presence of translucent, non-motile colonial variants was noted among the majority of opaque, motile colonies. High-throughput genomic sequencing of two flagellated translucent and two opaque variants as well as the parent strain revealed multiple genetic changes compared to the published genome. However, the only mutated open reading frame common between the two translucent variants and absent from the opaque variants and the parent was motA, encoding a flagellar motor protein. A total of 18 spontaneous motA mutations were found that mapped to four distinct sites in the gene, with only one class of mutation present in a phase variable region. This study exemplifies the mutative/adaptive properties of C. jejuni and demonstrates additional variability in C. jejuni beyond phase variation.
authors.affiliation: Enteric Diseases Department, Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Krystle L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Mohawk
authors.affiliation: Enteric Diseases Department, Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poly
authors.affiliation: Institute for Genome Sciences, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jason W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sahl
authors.affiliation: Institute for Genome Sciences, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rasko
authors.affiliation: Enteric Diseases Department, Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guerry
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010641:Phenotype; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C063010:MotA protein, Bacteria