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Reduced expression of antigenic proteins MPB70 and MPB83 in Mycobacterium bovis BCG strains due to a start codon mutation in sigK
Author(s) -
Charlet Danielle,
Mostowy Serge,
Alexander David,
Sit Louis,
Wiker Harald G.,
Behr Marcel A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2005.04618.x
Subject(s) - mycobacterium bovis , biology , mutation , antigen , microbiology and biotechnology , start codon , mycobacterium , virology , mycobacterium tuberculosis , genetics , tuberculosis , bacteria , gene , base sequence , medicine , pathology
Summary Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) strains are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous. Expression of the antigenic proteins MPB70 and MPB83 is known to vary considerably across BCG strains; however, the reason for this phenotypic difference has remained unknown. By immunoblot, we separated BCG into high‐ and low‐producing strains. By quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), we determined that transcription of the antigen‐encoding genes, mpb70 and mpb83 , follows the same strain pattern with mRNA levels reduced over 50‐fold in low‐producing strains. Transcriptome comparison of the same BCG strains by DNA microarray revealed two gene regions consistently downregulated in low‐producing strains compared with high‐producing strains, one including mpb70 ( Rv2875 ) and mpb83 ( Rv2873 ) and a second that includes the predicted sigma factor, sigK . DNA sequence analysis revealed a point mutation in the start codon of sigK in all low‐producing BCG strains. Complementation of a low‐producing strain, BCG Pasteur, with wild‐type sigK fully restored MPB70 and MPB83 production. Microarray‐based analysis and confirmatory RT‐PCR of the complemented strains revealed an upregulation in gene transcription limited to the sigK and the mpb83/mpb70 gene regions. These data demonstrate that a mutation of sigK is responsible for decreased expression of MPB70 and MPB83 in low‐producing BCG strains and provide clues into the role of Mycobacterium tuberculosis SigK.