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. 1996 Oct;178(19):5831–5835. doi: 10.1128/jb.178.19.5831-5835.1996

Natural genetic transformation in Streptococcus gordonii: comX imparts spontaneous competence on strain wicky.

R D Lunsford 1, J London 1
PMCID: PMC178432  PMID: 8824638

Abstract

Streptococcus gordonii Wicky becomes competent only after stimulation with conditioned medium from strain Challis as a source of competence factor (CF). A 3.2-kbp genomic fragment from Challis was found to impart spontaneous competence on Wicky by a complementation assay. Wicky clones containing the fragment secreted a heat-sensitive activity that induced competence in Wicky and in a comA insertion mutant of Challis. Activity was localized to a putative open reading frame, comX, with the potential to encode a 52-amino-acid peptide. comX had no similarity to known sequences, and a comX::ermAM insertion mutant of Challis transformed normally and secreted CF. These data suggest that a CF-independent pathway for competence induction exists in S. gordonii.

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Selected References

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