The Brucella suis homologue of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens chromosomal virulence operon chvE is essential for sugar utilization but not for survival in macrophages.

ABSTRACT: Brucella strains possess an operon encoding type IV secretion machinery very similar to that coded by the Agrobacterium tumefaciens virB operon. Here we describe cloning of the Brucella suis homologue of the chvE-gguA-gguB operon of A. tumefaciens and characterize the sugar binding protein ChvE (78% identity), which in A. tumefaciens is involved in virulence gene expression. B. suis chvE is upstream of the putative sugar transporter-encoding genes gguA and gguB, also present in A. tumefaciens, but not adjacent to that of a LysR-type transcription regulator. Although results of Southern hybridization experiments suggested that the gene is present in all Brucella strains, the ChvE protein was detected only in B. suis and Brucella canis with A. tumefaciens ChvE-specific antisera, suggesting t

SUBMITTER: Alvarez-Martinez MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC95417 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature