ISSN:
1365-2958
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
The nucleotide sequence has been determined for the Streptococcus mutans wall-associated protein A (wapA) gene from serotype c strains Ingbritt and GS5. The nucleotide sequence for each wapA gene was virtually identical, although the gene from strain GS5 contained a 24 base pair deletion. A 29 amino acid signal peptide was specified by each wapA gene with a mature protein of 424 amino acids (Mr, 45276) for strain Ingbritt and 416 amino acids (Mr, 44846) for strain GS5. In the C-terminal region of the wall-associated protein A, considerable sequence similarity was found with the membrane anchor region of proteins from other Gram-positive organisms such as the group A streptococcal M protein and the group G streptococcal IgG binding protein. Adjacent to the proposed membrane anchor is a highly hydrophilic region which may span the cell wall; both sequence data and experimental evidence indicate the existence of a region immediately outside the wall at which proteolytic cleavage occurs to release antigen A of Mr 29000 into the culture supernatant. Thus, the wall-associated protein A is a precursor of the 29000 Mr antigen A.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2958.1989.tb00193.x
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