Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Infection and Immunity logoLink to Infection and Immunity
. 1991 Jan;59(1):390–397. doi: 10.1128/iai.59.1.390-397.1991

Tandem insertion sequence-like elements define the expression site for variable antigen genes of Borrelia hermsii.

A G Barbour 1, C J Carter 1, N Burman 1, C S Freitag 1, C F Garon 1, S Bergström 1
PMCID: PMC257753  PMID: 1987053

Abstract

The spirochete Borrelia hermsii avoids the immune response of its mammalian host through multiphasic antigenic variation. Serotype specificity is determined by variable antigens, Vmp proteins, in the outer membrane. Through nonreciprocal recombination between linear plasmids, a formerly silent vmp gene replaces another vmp gene downstream from a common expression site. To further characterize this activating site, we determined the nucleotide sequence of 6.9 kb of the common upstream expression region of strain HS1 of B. hermsii. Preceding the vmp gene promoter and a poly(dT.dA) run were three imperfectly repeated segments of 2 kb. Each of the 2-kb segments contained 1-kb elements with inverted repeats of approximately 0.2 kb each at their termini. The potential of the 1-kb elements to form stem-and-loop structures was demonstrated by heteroduplex analysis. There was no evidence of the presence of the elements elsewhere in the genome of B. hermsii. One or more of these elements may confer the unidirectionality that characterizes vmp gene switches.

Full text

PDF
390

Images in this article

395Image
on p.395

Selected References

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

  1. Barbour A. G., Barrera O., Judd R. C. Structural analysis of the variable major proteins of Borrelia hermsii. J Exp Med. 1983 Dec 1;158(6):2127–2140. doi: 10.1084/jem.158.6.2127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barbour A. G., Garon C. F. Linear plasmids of the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi have covalently closed ends. Science. 1987 Jul 24;237(4813):409–411. doi: 10.1126/science.3603026. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barbour A. G., Hayes S. F. Biology of Borrelia species. Microbiol Rev. 1986 Dec;50(4):381–400. doi: 10.1128/mr.50.4.381-400.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Barbour A. G., Tessier S. L., Stoenner H. G. Variable major proteins of Borrellia hermsii. J Exp Med. 1982 Nov 1;156(5):1312–1324. doi: 10.1084/jem.156.5.1312. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Barstad P. A., Coligan J. E., Raum M. G., Barbour A. G. Variable major proteins of Borrelia hermsii. Epitope mapping and partial sequence analysis of CNBr peptides. J Exp Med. 1985 Jun 1;161(6):1302–1314. doi: 10.1084/jem.161.6.1302. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bergström S., Bundoc V. G., Barbour A. G. Molecular analysis of linear plasmid-encoded major surface proteins, OspA and OspB, of the Lyme disease spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi. Mol Microbiol. 1989 Apr;3(4):479–486. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1989.tb00194.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Burman N., Bergström S., Restrepo B. I., Barbour A. G. The variable antigens Vmp7 and Vmp21 of the relapsing fever bacterium Borrelia hermsii are structurally analogous to the VSG proteins of the African trypanosome. Mol Microbiol. 1990 Oct;4(10):1715–1726. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb00549.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Campbell D. A., Thornton D. A., Boothroyd J. C. Apparent discontinuous transcription of Trypanosoma brucei variant surface antigen genes. 1984 Sep 27-Oct 3Nature. 311(5984):350–355. doi: 10.1038/311350a0. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Cantor C. R., Efstratiadis A. Possible structures of homopurine-homopyrimidine S1-hypersensitive sites. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Nov 12;12(21):8059–8072. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.21.8059. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Chen E. Y., Seeburg P. H. Supercoil sequencing: a fast and simple method for sequencing plasmid DNA. DNA. 1985 Apr;4(2):165–170. doi: 10.1089/dna.1985.4.165. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Craigen W. J., Cook R. G., Tate W. P., Caskey C. T. Bacterial peptide chain release factors: conserved primary structure and possible frameshift regulation of release factor 2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jun;82(11):3616–3620. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.11.3616. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Fickett J. W. Recognition of protein coding regions in DNA sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Sep 11;10(17):5303–5318. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.17.5303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Gribskov M., Burgess R. R. Sigma factors from E. coli, B. subtilis, phage SP01, and phage T4 are homologous proteins. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Aug 26;14(16):6745–6763. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.16.6745. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Gyllensten U. B., Erlich H. A. Generation of single-stranded DNA by the polymerase chain reaction and its application to direct sequencing of the HLA-DQA locus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Oct;85(20):7652–7656. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.20.7652. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hanahan D. Studies on transformation of Escherichia coli with plasmids. J Mol Biol. 1983 Jun 5;166(4):557–580. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80284-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Harr R., Fällman P., Häggström M., Wahlström L., Gustafsson P. GENEUS, a computer system for DNA and protein sequence analysis containing an information retrieval system for the EMBL data library. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Jan 10;14(1):273–284. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.1.273. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Henikoff S. Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III creates targeted breakpoints for DNA sequencing. Gene. 1984 Jun;28(3):351–359. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90153-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kitten T., Barbour A. G. Juxtaposition of expressed variable antigen genes with a conserved telomere in the bacterium Borrelia hermsii. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Aug;87(16):6077–6081. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6077. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Kostriken R., Strathern J. N., Klar A. J., Hicks J. B., Heffron F. A site-specific endonuclease essential for mating-type switching in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):167–174. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90219-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Liu A. Y., Van der Ploeg L. H., Rijsewijk F. A., Borst P. The transposition unit of variant surface glycoprotein gene 118 of Trypanosoma brucei. Presence of repeated elements at its border and absence of promoter-associated sequences. J Mol Biol. 1983 Jun 15;167(1):57–75. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80034-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Meier J. T., Simon M. I., Barbour A. G. Antigenic variation is associated with DNA rearrangements in a relapsing fever Borrelia. Cell. 1985 Jun;41(2):403–409. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(85)80013-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Messing J. New M13 vectors for cloning. Methods Enzymol. 1983;101:20–78. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(83)01005-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Needleman S. B., Wunsch C. D. A general method applicable to the search for similarities in the amino acid sequence of two proteins. J Mol Biol. 1970 Mar;48(3):443–453. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90057-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Nickol J. M., Felsenfeld G. DNA conformation at the 5' end of the chicken adult beta-globin gene. Cell. 1983 Dec;35(2 Pt 1):467–477. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90180-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Nielsen O., Egel R. Mapping the double-strand breaks at the mating-type locus in fission yeast by genomic sequencing. EMBO J. 1989 Jan;8(1):269–276. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03373.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Peck L. J., Wang J. C. Sequence dependence of the helical repeat of DNA in solution. Nature. 1981 Jul 23;292(5821):375–378. doi: 10.1038/292375a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Plasterk R. H., Simon M. I., Barbour A. G. Transposition of structural genes to an expression sequence on a linear plasmid causes antigenic variation in the bacterium Borrelia hermsii. Nature. 1985 Nov 21;318(6043):257–263. doi: 10.1038/318257a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Rhodes D., Klug A. Sequence-dependent helical periodicity of DNA. Nature. 1981 Jul 23;292(5821):378–380. doi: 10.1038/292378a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Shah J. S., Young J. R., Kimmel B. E., Iams K. P., Williams R. O. The 5' flanking sequence of a Trypanosoma brucei variable surface glycoprotein gene. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 1987 Jun;24(2):163–174. doi: 10.1016/0166-6851(87)90103-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Stoenner H. G., Dodd T., Larsen C. Antigenic variation of Borrelia hermsii. J Exp Med. 1982 Nov 1;156(5):1297–1311. doi: 10.1084/jem.156.5.1297. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Strauss E. C., Kobori J. A., Siu G., Hood L. E. Specific-primer-directed DNA sequencing. Anal Biochem. 1986 Apr;154(1):353–360. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(86)90536-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Struhl K., Chen W., Hill D. E., Hope I. A., Oettinger M. A. Constitutive and coordinately regulated transcription of yeast genes: promoter elements, positive and negative regulatory sites, and DNA binding proteins. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1985;50:489–503. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1985.050.01.061. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Tabor S., Richardson C. C. DNA sequence analysis with a modified bacteriophage T7 DNA polymerase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jul;84(14):4767–4771. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.14.4767. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Taschke C., Klinkert M. Q., Wolters J., Herrmann R. Organization of the ribosomal RNA genes in Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae: the 5S rRNA gene is separated from the 16S and 23S rRNA genes. Mol Gen Genet. 1986 Dec;205(3):428–433. doi: 10.1007/BF00338078. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Wohlrab F., McLean M. J., Wells R. D. The segment inversion site of herpes simplex virus type 1 adopts a novel DNA structure. J Biol Chem. 1987 May 5;262(13):6407–6416. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Yanisch-Perron C., Vieira J., Messing J. Improved M13 phage cloning vectors and host strains: nucleotide sequences of the M13mp18 and pUC19 vectors. Gene. 1985;33(1):103–119. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90120-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Infection and Immunity are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES