Tuberculosis vaccine strain Mycobacterium bovis BCG Russia is a natural recA mutant.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The current tuberculosis vaccine is a live vaccine derived from Mycobacterium bovis and attenuated by serial in vitro passaging. All vaccine substrains in use stem from one source, strain Bacille Calmette-Guérin. However, they differ in regions of genomic deletions, antigen expression levels, immunogenicity, and protective efficacy.

Results

As a RecA phenotype increases genetic stability and may contribute restricting the ongoing evolution of the various BCG substrains while maintaining their protective efficacy, we aimed to inactivate recA by allelic replacement in BCG vaccine strains representing different phylogenetic lineages (Pasteur, Frappier, Denmark, Russia). Homologous gene replacement was achieved successfully in three out of four strains. However, only

SUBMITTER: Keller PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2483709 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature