Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding the major surface protein of the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis.

ABSTRACT: The maternally inherited intracellular symbiont Wolbachia pipientis is well known for inducing a variety of reproductive abnormalities in the diverse arthropod hosts it infects. It has been implicated in causing cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis, and the feminization of genetic males in different hosts. The molecular mechanisms by which this fastidious intracellular bacterium causes these reproductive and developmental abnormalities have not yet been determined. In this paper, we report on (i) the purification of one of the most abundantly expressed Wolbachia proteins from infected Drosophila eggs and (ii) the subsequent cloning and characterization of the gene (wsp) that encodes it. The functionality of the wsp promoter region was also successfully tested in Escherichia coli. C

SUBMITTER: Braig HR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC107178 | biostudies-literature | 1998 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature