Global Changes in Mycoplasma gallisepticum Phase-Variable Lipoprotein Gene vlhA Expression during In Vivo Infection of the Natural Chicken Host.

ABSTRACT: Mycoplasma gallisepticum is the primary etiologic agent of chronic respiratory disease in poultry, a disease largely affecting the respiratory tract and causing significant economic losses worldwide. Immunodominant proteins encoded by members of the variable lipoprotein and hemagglutinin (vlhA) gene family are thought to be important for mechanisms of M. gallisepticum-host interaction, pathogenesis, and immune evasion, but their exact role and the overall nature of their phase variation are unknown. To better understand these mechanisms, we assessed global transcriptomic vlhA gene expression directly from M. gallisepticum populations present on tracheal mucosae during a 7-day experimental infection in the natural chicken host. Here we report differences in both dominant and minor vlhA gene

SUBMITTER: Pflaum K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4693984 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature