Structural analysis of the pilE region of Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9.

We have determined the nucleotide sequence of an expressed structural pilus gene (pilE) derived from Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain P9-2. Detailed analysis of nucleotide sequences upstream from pilE revealed a silent, truncated pilin gene segment that was linked to families of DNA elements (RS1 and RS3) that have previously been identified at the major silent pilin gene locus (pilS1) and at pilE of the independently isolated N. gonorrhoeae strain MS11ms. A nucleotide sequence downstream from pilE was reminiscent of the recognition sequences of several recombinases, including Tn3 tnpR product (resolvase), suggesting a possible role for site-specific events in the recombinational modulation of pilus expression.

Neisseria meningitidis C114 contains silent, truncated pilin genes that are homologous to Neisseria gonorrhoeae pil sequences.

Neisseria meningitidis pili can be classified into two groups: those (referred to here as class I pili) which are similar to gonococcal pili in that they react with monoclonal antibody SM1 and those that are dissimilar to gonococcal pili in that they lack the SM1-reactive epitope (class II pili). Pilus expression in N. meningitidis C114, a class II pilus-producing isolate, was investigated. The sole genomic segment of this strain that bore extensive homology with the pilE locus of Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9 was cloned in Escherichia coli. The production of the pilus structural subunit (pilin) from this meningococcal segment could not be detected by immunological and coupled in vitro transcription-translation analyses. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed the presence in the C114 genome of two variant, tandemly arranged pilin genes (copies 1 and 2). Copies 1 and 2 are partial pilin genes that constitute part of a silent meningococcal pilin gene (pil gene) region, designated pilS. Both copies are truncated, corresponding to variable domains of the gonococcal pilE gene but lacking homologous N-terminal coding sequences. Located within sequences surrounding copies 1 and 2 were several classes of repeated elements that are associated with pil loci in N. gonorrhoeae.

Genetic analysis of variant pilin genes from Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9 cloned in Escherichia coli: physical and immunological properties of encoded pilins.

A series of genomic DNA fragments that encode gonococcal pilins from four well-characterized pilus variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain P9 have been cloned in Escherichia coli K12. At least nine classes of cloned P9 pilin genes have been identified on the basis of restriction mapping of cloned pilin-encoding DNA and physical and immunological analysis of expressed pilin proteins. Each antigenic variant of strain P9 possesses many genomic segments of pilin gene information, although our results suggest that strain P9 contains only a single pilin-expressing (pilE) locus.

Localization of antibody-binding sites by sequence analysis of cloned pilin genes from Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Immunological analysis of gonococcal pilin (the protein structural subunit of pili) has demonstrated the existence of cross-reacting and type-specific epitopes. The role in adhesion of the domains represented by these epitopes remains unclear. DNA sequencing of a series of pilin-expressing (pilE) genes from a number of otherwise isogenic pilus antigenic variants combined with previous immunological analysis of the corresponding encoded pilins has allowed us to correlate certain predicted amino acid sequences with monoclonal antibody reactivities. The putative epitopes for type-specific antibodies lie predominantly in hydrophilic domains that also contain beta turns. The epitopes for type-specific monoclonal antibodies were shown to depend on amino acid changes either in three separated blocks of amino acid sequence in the semi-variable (SV) region of pilin, or in discrete regions that lie in the disulphide loop in the hypervariable (HV) region of the polypeptide. In contrast, antibody SM1, which reacts with all gonococcal pili, recognizes a poorly immunogenic region of moderate hydrophilicity but low turn potential lying in a conserved portion of the pilin molecule. Our results confirm that antibodies directed against epitopes in both the SV and HV regions are able to inhibit adhesion.

Inter-strain homology of pilin gene sequences in Neisseria meningitidis isolates that express markedly different antigenic pilus types.

Neisseria meningitidis isolates examined in this study elaborated one of two pilus types that were antigenically markedly different. Each pilus type reacted either with SM1, a monoclonal antibody that recognizes an epitope common to all gonococcal pili, or with a polyclonal antiserum raised against meningococcal pili that did not react with SM1, but not both. Total genomic DNA from all N. meningitidis isolates analysed, irrespective of pilus type, contained at least one region with extensive homology to a gonococcal pilE probe. Different N. meningitidis strains possessed one of several configurations of genomic pilE-homologous segments. Chromosomal rearrangement of pilE-homologous sequences was associated with P+ to P- pilus phase transition in the strains examined. The arrangement of pilE-homologous segments in total genomic DNA from N. meningitidis isolated from the blood and cerebro-spinal fluid of the same patient was apparently identical.