Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1987 May 1;165(5):1344–1357. doi: 10.1084/jem.165.5.1344

Gonococcal pilin variants in experimental gonorrhea

PMCID: PMC2188307  PMID: 3106555

Abstract

When pilus+ Gc were introduced into a male subject's urethra, they gave rise to pilus+ variants whose pilin mRNAs differed from that of input Gc. The differences stemmed from the Gc genome's single complete pilin gene having undergone gene conversion by different partial pilin genes' sequences and by different length stretches of a single partial pilin gene. In some instances, the variant's pilin mRNA appeared to reflect two independent gene-conversion events that used sequences from two different partial pilin genes. The resulting variants' pilins exhibited antigenic differences compared with the pilin polypeptide of input Gc; these differences were discernible by immunoblotting with mAbs. Amino acid and antigenic changes occurred in a segment of the variants' pilin polypeptides that previously was thought to be conserved or constant in sequence.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.4 MB).

Selected References

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

  1. Bergström S., Robbins K., Koomey J. M., Swanson J. Piliation control mechanisms in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jun;83(11):3890–3894. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.11.3890. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buchanan T. M. Antigenic heterogeneity of gonococcal pili. J Exp Med. 1975 Jun 1;141(6):1470–1475. doi: 10.1084/jem.141.6.1470. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Duckworth M., Jackson D., Zak K., Heckels J. E. Structural variations in pili expressed during gonococcal infection. J Gen Microbiol. 1983 May;129(5):1593–1596. doi: 10.1099/00221287-129-5-1593. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Edwards M., McDade R. L., Schoolnik G., Rothbard J. B., Gotschlich E. C. Antigenic analysis of gonococcal pili using monoclonal antibodies. J Exp Med. 1984 Dec 1;160(6):1782–1791. doi: 10.1084/jem.160.6.1782. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Haas R., Meyer T. F. The repertoire of silent pilus genes in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: evidence for gene conversion. Cell. 1986 Jan 17;44(1):107–115. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90489-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hagblom P., Segal E., Billyard E., So M. Intragenic recombination leads to pilus antigenic variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Nature. 1985 May 9;315(6015):156–158. doi: 10.1038/315156a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lambden P. R. Biochemical comparison of pili from variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9. J Gen Microbiol. 1982 Sep;128(9):2105–2111. doi: 10.1099/00221287-128-9-2105. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Meyer T. F., Billyard E., Haas R., Storzbach S., So M. Pilus genes of Neisseria gonorrheae: chromosomal organization and DNA sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Oct;81(19):6110–6114. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.19.6110. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Meyer T. F., Mlawer N., So M. Pilus expression in Neisseria gonorrhoeae involves chromosomal rearrangement. Cell. 1982 Aug;30(1):45–52. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90010-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Rothbard J. B., Fernandez R., Schoolnik G. K. Strain-specific and common epitopes of gonococcal pili. J Exp Med. 1984 Jul 1;160(1):208–221. doi: 10.1084/jem.160.1.208. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rothbard J. B., Fernandez R., Wang L., Teng N. N., Schoolnik G. K. Antibodies to peptides corresponding to a conserved sequence of gonococcal pilins block bacterial adhesion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Feb;82(3):915–919. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.3.915. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rothbard J. B., Schoolnik G. K. The primary sequence and antigenic structure of gonococcal pilin: approaches towards a gonococcal vaccine. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1985;185:247–273. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-7974-4_17. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Schoolnik G. K., Fernandez R., Tai J. Y., Rothbard J., Gotschlich E. C. Gonococcal pili. Primary structure and receptor binding domain. J Exp Med. 1984 May 1;159(5):1351–1370. doi: 10.1084/jem.159.5.1351. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Schoolnik G. K., Tai J. Y., Gotschlich E. C. A pilus peptide vaccine for the prevention of gonorrhea. Prog Allergy. 1983;33:314–331. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Segal E., Billyard E., So M., Storzbach S., Meyer T. F. Role of chromosomal rearrangement in N. gonorrhoeae pilus phase variation. Cell. 1985 Feb;40(2):293–300. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90143-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Sparling P. F., Cannon J. G., So M. Phase and antigenic variation of pili and outer membrane protein II of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. J Infect Dis. 1986 Feb;153(2):196–201. doi: 10.1093/infdis/153.2.196. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Swanson J., Barrera O. Gonococcal pilus subunit size heterogeneity correlates with transitions in colony piliation phenotype, not with changes in colony opacity. J Exp Med. 1983 Nov 1;158(5):1459–1472. doi: 10.1084/jem.158.5.1459. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Swanson J., Bergström S., Barrera O., Robbins K., Corwin D. Pilus- gonococcal variants. Evidence for multiple forms of piliation control. J Exp Med. 1985 Aug 1;162(2):729–744. doi: 10.1084/jem.162.2.729. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Swanson J., Bergström S., Robbins K., Barrera O., Corwin D., Koomey J. M. Gene conversion involving the pilin structural gene correlates with pilus+ in equilibrium with pilus- changes in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Cell. 1986 Oct 24;47(2):267–276. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90449-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Swanson J., Robbins K., Barrera O., Koomey J. M. Gene conversion variations generate structurally distinct pilin polypeptides in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. J Exp Med. 1987 Apr 1;165(4):1016–1025. doi: 10.1084/jem.165.4.1016. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Swanson J. Studies on gonococcus infection. IV. Pili: their role in attachment of gonococci to tissue culture cells. J Exp Med. 1973 Mar 1;137(3):571–589. doi: 10.1084/jem.137.3.571. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Tramont E. C., Sadoff J. C., Boslego J. W., Ciak J., McChesney D., Brinton C. C., Wood S., Takafuji E. Gonococcal pilus vaccine. Studies of antigenicity and inhibition of attachment. J Clin Invest. 1981 Oct;68(4):881–888. doi: 10.1172/JCI110343. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Virji M., Heckels J. E. The role of common and type-specific pilus antigenic domains in adhesion and virulence of gonococci for human epithelial cells. J Gen Microbiol. 1984 May;130(5):1089–1095. doi: 10.1099/00221287-130-5-1089. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES