Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1994 Apr 26;91(9):3769–3773. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.9.3769

Roles of pilin and PilC in adhesion of Neisseria meningitidis to human epithelial and endothelial cells.

X Nassif 1, J L Beretti 1, J Lowy 1, P Stenberg 1, P O'Gaora 1, J Pfeifer 1, S Normark 1, M So 1
PMCID: PMC43663  PMID: 7909606

Abstract

Pili and pilin antigenic variation play important roles in adhesion of Neisseria meningitidis (MC) to human epithelial and endothelial cells. We recently identified one pilin variant that confers high adhesiveness of MC to human epithelial cells in culture. However, other factor(s) also play a role in MC adhesiveness, since some nonadhesive variants of MC strain 8013 are piliated and produce the same pilin variant as adhesive derivatives. PilC1 and PilC2, high molecular weight outer membrane proteins in Neisseria gonorrhoeae, are proposed to play roles in pilus assembly. Strain 8013 also contains pilC1 and pilC2; their products function in a similar if not identical manner in pilus biogenesis. PilC1 has an additional function in that it also modulates adhesiveness of strain 8013.

Full text

PDF
3769

Images in this article

3771Image
on p.3771
3771Image
on p.3771

Selected References

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

  1. DeVoe I. W. The meningococcus and mechanisms of pathogenicity. Microbiol Rev. 1982 Jun;46(2):162–190. doi: 10.1128/mr.46.2.162-190.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Gibbs C. P., Reimann B. Y., Schultz E., Kaufmann A., Haas R., Meyer T. F. Reassortment of pilin genes in Neisseria gonorrhoeae occurs by two distinct mechanisms. Nature. 1989 Apr 20;338(6217):651–652. doi: 10.1038/338651a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Goodman S. D., Scocca J. J. Identification and arrangement of the DNA sequence recognized in specific transformation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(18):6982–6986. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.18.6982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Jonsson A. B., Nyberg G., Normark S. Phase variation of gonococcal pili by frameshift mutation in pilC, a novel gene for pilus assembly. EMBO J. 1991 Feb;10(2):477–488. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1991.tb07970.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Jonsson A. B., Nyberg G., Normark S. Phase variation of gonococcal pili by frameshift mutation in pilC, a novel gene for pilus assembly. EMBO J. 1991 Feb;10(2):477–488. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1991.tb07970.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Nassif X., Lowy J., Stenberg P., O'Gaora P., Ganji A., So M. Antigenic variation of pilin regulates adhesion of Neisseria meningitidis to human epithelial cells. Mol Microbiol. 1993 May;8(4):719–725. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb01615.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Nassif X., Puaoi D., So M. Transposition of Tn1545-delta 3 in the pathogenic Neisseriae: a genetic tool for mutagenesis. J Bacteriol. 1991 Apr;173(7):2147–2154. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.7.2147-2154.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Paruchuri D. K., Seifert H. S., Ajioka R. S., Karlsson K. A., So M. Identification and characterization of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae gene encoding a glycolipid-binding adhesin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Jan;87(1):333–337. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.1.333. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Perry A. C., Nicolson I. J., Saunders J. R. Neisseria meningitidis C114 contains silent, truncated pilin genes that are homologous to Neisseria gonorrhoeae pil sequences. J Bacteriol. 1988 Apr;170(4):1691–1697. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.4.1691-1697.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Potts W. J., Saunders J. R. Nucleotide sequence of the structural gene for class I pilin from Neisseria meningitidis: homologies with the pilE locus of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Mol Microbiol. 1988 Sep;2(5):647–653. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1988.tb00073.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rudel T., van Putten J. P., Gibbs C. P., Haas R., Meyer T. F. Interaction of two variable proteins (PilE and PilC) required for pilus-mediated adherence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to human epithelial cells. Mol Microbiol. 1992 Nov;6(22):3439–3450. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1992.tb02211.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Seifert H. S., Ajioka R. S., Marchal C., Sparling P. F., So M. DNA transformation leads to pilin antigenic variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Nature. 1988 Nov 24;336(6197):392–395. doi: 10.1038/336392a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Seifert H. S., So M. Genetic mechanisms of bacterial antigenic variation. Microbiol Rev. 1988 Sep;52(3):327–336. doi: 10.1128/mr.52.3.327-336.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Stephens D. S., Krebs J. W., McGee Z. A. Loss of pili and decreased attachment to human cells by Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae exposed to subinhibitory concentrations of antibiotics. Infect Immun. 1984 Nov;46(2):507–513. doi: 10.1128/iai.46.2.507-513.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Studier F. W., Rosenberg A. H., Dunn J. J., Dubendorff J. W. Use of T7 RNA polymerase to direct expression of cloned genes. Methods Enzymol. 1990;185:60–89. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(90)85008-c. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Trieu-Cuot P., Poyart-Salmeron C., Carlier C., Courvalin P. Nucleotide sequence of the erythromycin resistance gene of the conjugative transposon Tn1545. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Jun 25;18(12):3660–3660. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.12.3660. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Virji M., Heckels J. E., Potts W. J., Hart C. A., Saunders J. R. Identification of epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies SM1 and SM2 which react with all pili of Neisseria gonorrhoeae but which differentiate between two structural classes of pili expressed by Neisseria meningitidis and the distribution of their encoding sequences in the genomes of Neisseria spp. J Gen Microbiol. 1989 Dec;135(12):3239–3251. doi: 10.1099/00221287-135-12-3239. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Virji M., Kayhty H., Ferguson D. J., Alexandrescu C., Heckels J. E., Moxon E. R. The role of pili in the interactions of pathogenic Neisseria with cultured human endothelial cells. Mol Microbiol. 1991 Aug;5(8):1831–1841. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1991.tb00807.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Virji M., Saunders J. R., Sims G., Makepeace K., Maskell D., Ferguson D. J. Pilus-facilitated adherence of Neisseria meningitidis to human epithelial and endothelial cells: modulation of adherence phenotype occurs concurrently with changes in primary amino acid sequence and the glycosylation status of pilin. Mol Microbiol. 1993 Dec;10(5):1013–1028. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb00972.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES