Open AccessTranscriptional organization of the Porphyromonas gingivalis fimA locus
Author(s) -
Park Yoonsuk,
Xie Hua,
Lamont Richard J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2007.00782.x
Subject(s) - porphyromonas gingivalis , operon , plasmid , fimbria , promoter , lac operon , gene , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , recombinant dna , transcription (linguistics) , reporter gene , shuttle vector , protein subunit , gene expression , genetics , escherichia coli , vector (molecular biology) , bacteria , linguistics , philosophy
Two different transcriptional start sites, as well as promoter regions and translational starts, have been proposed for the fimA gene encoding a long fimbriae subunit protein of Porphyromonas gingivalis . In this study, the fimA promoter regions and organization of the fimA operon were characterized. The two putative promoter regions for fimA were fused with a lacZ reporter gene, cloned into the shuttle plasmid vector pT‐COW, and the recombinant plasmids were introduced to P. gingivalis 33277. Reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction demonstrated mRNA production from the promoter proximal to the translational start. LacZ activities of P. gingivalis containing the recombinant plasmids showed that maximal expression of fimA was promoted by the proximal promoter in combination with distal regulatory sequences. A polycistronic message spanning PG2130, PG2131 and fimA (PG2132) was observed, thus fimA transcripts may also be generated by processing of the polycistronic message.