Ferrochelatase is present in Brucella abortus and is critical for its intracellular survival and virulence.

ABSTRACT: Brucella spp. are pathogenic bacteria that cause brucellosis, an animal disease which can also affect humans. Although understanding the pathogenesis is important for the health of animals and humans, little is known about virulence factors associated with it. In order for chronic disease to be established, Brucella spp. have developed the ability to survive inside phagocytes by evading cell defenses. It hides inside vacuoles, where it then replicates, indicating that it has an active metabolism. The purpose of this work was to obtain better insight into the intracellular metabolism of Brucella abortus. During a B. abortus genomic sequencing project, a clone coding a putative gene homologous to hemH was identified and sequenced. The amino acid sequence revealed high homology to members of

SUBMITTER: Almiron M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC98755 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature