A gonococcal homologue of meningococcal gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase gene is a new type of bacterial pseudogene that is transcriptionally active but phenotypically silent.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It has been speculated that the gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (ggt) gene is present only in Neisseria meningitidis and not among related species such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria lactamica, because N. meningitidis is the only bacterium with GGT activity. However, nucleotide sequences highly homologous to the meningococcal ggt gene were found in the genomes of N. gonorrhoeae isolates.

Results

The gonococcal homologue (ggt gonococcal homologue; ggh) was analyzed. The nucleotide sequence of the ggh gene was approximately 95% identical to that of the meningococcal ggt gene. An open reading frame in the ggh gene was disrupted by an ochre mutation and frameshift mutations induced by a 7-base deletion, but the amino acid sequences deduced from the artificially

SUBMITTER: Takahashi H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1262726 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature