Identification and characterization of the capsular polysaccharide (K-antigen) locus of Porphyromonas gingivalis.

ABSTRACT: Capsular polysaccharides of gram-negative bacteria play an important role in maintaining the structural integrity of the cell in hostile environments and, because of their diversity within a given species, can act as useful taxonomic aids. In order to characterize the genetic locus for capsule biosynthesis in the oral gram-negative bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis, we analyzed the genome of P. gingivalis W83 which revealed two candidate loci at PG0106-PG0120 and PG1135-PG1142 with sufficient coding capacity and appropriate gene functions based on comparisons with capsule-coding loci in other bacteria. Insertion and deletion mutants were prepared at PG0106-PG0120 in P. gingivalis W50-a K1 serotype. Deletion of PG0109-PG0118 and PG0116-PG0120 both yielded mutants which no longer reacted wi

SUBMITTER: Aduse-Opoku J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1346596 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature