FIG 1.
Organization of pilin genes in N. gonorrhoeae. Representative maps of the pilE gene (white block arrows) and pilS loci (colored arrows), with the pointed ends showing the direction of the open reading frame (ORF), are shown. The black arrows represent functional promoters, the ovals represent the conserved Sma/Cla repeat (SCR), and the star indicates the G4 sequence. (A) Position, orientation, and relative distances between the pilin loci and the silent copies within each locus for strain FA1090. (B) The pilE gene and upstream region, with the positions of the primers used for 454 sequencing shown in red. (C) The constant (black) and variable (white or blue) regions of pilE and a representative pilS copy. The semivariable (SV), hypervariable loop (HVL), and hypervariable tail (HVT) regions are regions of heterology between the pilE gene and pilS copies, while cys1 and cys2 are conserved sequences among all pilin copies. The 10 purple lines represent the 10 regions used for silent-copy analysis. The figure is not drawn to scale. (D) The pilE G4 sequence with the G4 point mutations highlighted in red.