Differential regulation of multiple flagellins in Vibrio cholerae.

ABSTRACT: Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the human diarrheal disease cholera, is a motile bacterium with a single polar flagellum. Motility has been implicated as a virulence determinant in some animal models of cholera, but the relationship between motility and virulence has not yet been clearly defined. We have begun to define the regulatory circuitry controlling motility. We have identified five V. cholerae flagellin genes, arranged in two chromosomal loci, flaAC and flaEDB; all five genes have their own promoters. The predicted gene products have a high degree of homology to each other. A strain containing a single mutation in flaA is nonmotile and lacks a flagellum, while strains containing multiple mutations in the other four flagellin genes, including a flaCEDB strain, remain motile.

SUBMITTER: Klose KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC106886 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature