Identification of gene products involved in biofilm production by Moraxella catarrhalis ETSU-9 in vitro.

ABSTRACT: Moraxella catarrhalis ETSU-9 was subjected to random transposon insertion mutagenesis to identify genes encoding products involved in the ability of the organism to form biofilms in vitro. Screening of approximately 3,000 transposon insertion mutants in the crystal violet-based biofilm assay system yielded six mutants that exhibited greatly reduced abilities to form biofilms. Three of these mutants had transposon insertions in the uspA2H gene, which encodes a surface protein previously shown to be involved in the ability of M. catarrhalis to both attach to human cell lines in vitro and resist killing by normal human serum. Random insertion mutagenesis of the uspA2H gene, involving the introduction of a 15-nucleotide fragment encoding 5 amino acids, was used to attempt to identify the domai

SUBMITTER: Pearson MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1951151 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature