ABSTRACT: Streptococcus suis is an important cause of infectious diseases in young pigs. Little is known about the virulence factors or protective antigens of S. suis. Recently, we have identified two proteins of the arginine deiminase system (ADS) of S. suis, which were temperature induced and expressed on the streptococcal surface (N. Winterhoff, R. Goethe, P. Gruening, M. Rohde, H. Kalisz, H. E. Smith, and P. Valentin-Weigand, J. Bacteriol. 184:6768-6776, 2002). In the present study, we analyzed the complete ADS of S. suis. Due to their homologies to the recently published S. gordonii ADS genes, the genes for arginine deiminase, ornithine carbamoyl-transferase, and carbamate kinase, which were previously designated adiS, octS, and ckS, respectively, were renamed arcA, arcB, and arcC, respectively
