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. 1994 Dec;176(23):7405–7408. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.23.7405-7408.1994

The prgQ gene of the Enterococcus faecalis tetracycline resistance plasmid pCF10 encodes a peptide inhibitor, iCF10.

J Nakayama 1, R E Ruhfel 1, G M Dunny 1, A Isogai 1, A Suzuki 1
PMCID: PMC197135  PMID: 7545961

Abstract

Conjugative transfer of the Enterococcus faecalis tetracycline resistance plasmid pCF10 is stimulated by a peptide pheromone, cCF10. Once a recipient strain acquires pCF10 and thus becomes a pheromone-responsive donor, cCF10 activity is no longer detected in culture filtrates. Here we show that pCF10 encodes a peptide inhibitor, iCF10, secreted by donor cells; this inhibitor antagonizes the cCF10 activity in culture filtrates. In order to detect and quantitate iCF10, we developed a reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography assay in which the inhibitor peptide elutes separately from the pheromone; this type of assay enabled us to determine that lack of pheromone activity in donor culture filtrates was due to secretion of a mixture of iCF10 and cCF10, rather than abolition of cCF10 secretion. The gene encoding iCF10, prgQ, is located on the EcoRI-C fragment of pCF10. The open reading frame comprising the prgQ gene encodes a 23-amino-acid precursor that resembles a signal peptide. This precursor is cleaved to the mature heptapeptide iCF10 during the secretion process.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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