scholarly journals Analysis of Orientia tsutsugamushi promoter activity

2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason R Hunt ◽  
Jason A Carlyon
Keyword(s):  
Protein A ◽  
Specific Antigen ◽  
Green Fluorescence Protein ◽  
Orientia Tsutsugamushi ◽  
Strong Activity ◽  
Green Fluorescence Protein Expression ◽  
Ribosome Binding Sites ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Fluorescence Protein ◽  
Ability To Drive

ABSTRACT Orientia tsutsugamushi is an obligate intracellular bacterium that causes scrub typhus, a potentially fatal rickettsiosis, and for which no genetic tools exist. Critical to addressing this technical gap is to identify promoters for driving expression of antibiotic resistance and fluorescence reporter genes in O. tsutsugamushi. Such promoters would need to be highly conserved among strains, expressed throughout infection, and exhibit strong activity. We examined the untranslated regions upstream of O. tsutsugamushi genes encoding outer membrane protein A (ompA), 22-kDa type-specific antigen (tsa22) and tsa56. The bacterium transcribed all three during infection of monocytic, endothelial and epithelial cells. Examination of the upstream noncoding regions revealed putative ribosome binding sites, one set of predicted −10 and −35 sequences for ompA and two sets of −10 and −35 sequences for tsa22 and tsa56. Comparison of these regions among geographically diverse O. tsutsugamushi patient isolates revealed nucleotide identities ranging from 84.8 to 100.0%. Upon examination of the candidates for the ability to drive green fluorescence protein expression in Escherichia coli, varying activities were observed with one of the tsa22 promoters being the strongest. Identification and validation of O. tsutsugamushi promoters is an initial key step toward genetically manipulating this important pathogen.

scholarly journals Construction and Characterization of Shuttle Vectors for Succinic Acid-Producing Rumen Bacteria

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (17) ◽  
pp. 5411-5420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Sin Jang ◽  
Young Ryul Jung ◽  
Sang Yup Lee ◽  
Ji Mahn Kim ◽  
Jeong Wook Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Succinic Acid ◽  
Shuttle Vector ◽  
Green Fluorescence Protein ◽  
Expression Vectors ◽  
Rumen Bacteria ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Shuttle Vectors ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Fluorescence Protein

ABSTRACT Shuttle vectors carrying the origins of replication that function in Escherichia coli and two capnophilic rumen bacteria, Mannheimia succiniciproducens and Actinobacillus succinogenes, were constructed. These vectors were found to be present at ca. 10 copies per cell. They were found to be stably maintained in rumen bacteria during the serial subcultures in the absence of antibiotic pressure for 216 generations. By optimizing the electroporation condition, the transformation efficiencies of 3.0 × 106 and 7.1 × 106 transformants/μg DNA were obtained with M. succiniciproducens and A. succinogenes, respectively. A 1.7-kb minimal replicon was identified that consists of the rep gene, four iterons, A+T-rich regions, and a dnaA box. It was found that the shuttle vector replicates via the theta mode, which was confirmed by sequence analysis and Southern hybridization. These shuttle vectors were found to be suitable as expression vectors as the homologous fumC gene encoding fumarase and the heterologous genes encoding green fluorescence protein and red fluorescence protein could be expressed successfully. Thus, the shuttle vectors developed in this study should be useful for genetic and metabolic engineering of succinic acid-producing rumen bacteria.

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