Publication Date:
2009-08-08
Description:
Pathogens can use DNA recombination to promote antigenic variation (Av) of surface structures to avoid immune detection. We identified a cis-acting DNA sequence near the antigenically variable pilin locus of the human pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae. This 16-base pair guanine (G)-rich sequence was required for pilin Av and formed a guanine quartet (G4) structure in vitro. Individual mutations that disrupted the structure also blocked pilin Av and prevented nicks required for recombination from occurring within the G4 region. A compound that binds and stabilizes G4 structures also inhibited pilin Av and prevented nicks from occurring on the G-rich strand. This site constitutes a recombination initiation sequence/structure that directs gene conversion to a specific chromosomal locus.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803317/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803317/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cahoon, Laty A -- Seifert, H Steven -- R01 AI044239/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI044239-08/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI044239-09/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI044239-10/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI055977/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI055977-03/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI055977-04/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI055977-05/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01AI044239/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01AI055977/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI033493/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI033493-14/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI033493-15/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37 AI033493-16/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R37AI033493/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- T32GM08061/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Aug 7;325(5941):764-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1175653.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661435" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Antigenic Variation
;
Base Pairing
;
Base Sequence
;
DNA Damage
;
DNA, Bacterial/chemistry/*genetics
;
Fimbriae Proteins/chemistry/*genetics/*immunology
;
Fimbriae, Bacterial
;
Gene Conversion
;
Guanine/chemistry
;
Mesoporphyrins/metabolism/pharmacology
;
Neisseria gonorrhoeae/*genetics/growth & development/*immunology
;
Oligodeoxyribonucleotides/chemistry
;
Recombination, Genetic
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
