Skip to main content
PMC 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
. 1991 Feb 1;88(3):956–960. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.3.956

Molecular genetic basis for complex flagellar antigen expression in a triphasic serovar of Salmonella.

N H Smith 1, R K Selander 1
PMCID: PMC50933  PMID: 1992487

Abstract

Strains of most Salmonella serovars produce either one (monophasic) or two (diphasic) antigenic forms of flagellin protein, but strains capable of expressing three or more serologically distinct flagellins ("complex" serovars) have occasionally been reported. A molecular genetic analysis of a triphasic strain of the normally diphasic serovar Salmonella rubislaw revealed that it has three flagellin genes, including the normal fliC (phase 1) and fljB (phase 2) chromosomal genes encoding type r and type e,n,x flagellins, respectively, and a third locus (herein designated as flpA) that is located on a large plasmid (pRKS01) and codes for a type d flagellin. The coding sequence of the plasmid-borne gene is similar to that of a phase 1 chromosomal gene, but the sequence of its promoter region is homologous to that of a phase 2 chromosomal gene. The irreversible loss of the ability to express a type d flagellin that occurs when the triphasic strain is grown in the presence of d antiserum is caused by deletion of part or all of the flpA gene. Thus, the molecular basis for the unusual serological reactions of the triphasic strain of S. rubislaw and, by inference, other complex serovars of Salmonella is explained. Plasmids of the type carried by the triphasic strain of S. rubislaw provide a mechanism for the generation of new serovars through the lateral transfer and recombination of flagellin genes.

Full text

PDF
960

Images in this article

957Image
on p.957
957Image
on p.957

Selected References

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

  1. Beltran P., Musser J. M., Helmuth R., Farmer J. J., 3rd, Frerichs W. M., Wachsmuth I. K., Ferris K., McWhorter A. C., Wells J. G., Cravioto A. Toward a population genetic analysis of Salmonella: genetic diversity and relationships among strains of serotypes S. choleraesuis, S. derby, S. dublin, S. enteritidis, S. heidelberg, S. infantis, S. newport, and S. typhimurium. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Oct;85(20):7753–7757. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.20.7753. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. EDWARDS P. R., KAUFFMANN F., HUEY C. R. An unusual Salmonella type (Salmonella montgomery) 11:d,a : d, e, n, z15. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand. 1957;41(6):517–520. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1957.tb01718.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Frankel G., Newton S. M., Schoolnik G. K., Stocker B. A. Intragenic recombination in a flagellin gene: characterization of the H1-j gene of Salmonella typhi. EMBO J. 1989 Oct;8(10):3149–3152. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08468.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Higuchi R. G., Ochman H. Production of single-stranded DNA templates by exonuclease digestion following the polymerase chain reaction. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Jul 25;17(14):5865–5865. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.14.5865. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Inoue Y. H., Kutsukake K., Iino T., Yamaguchi S. Sequence analysis of operator mutants of the phase-1 flagellin-encoding gene, fliC, in Salmonella typhimurium. Gene. 1989 Dec 21;85(1):221–226. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(89)90485-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Joys T. M. The covalent structure of the phase-1 flagellar filament protein of Salmonella typhimurium and its comparison with other flagellins. J Biol Chem. 1985 Dec 15;260(29):15758–15761. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kado C. I., Liu S. T. Rapid procedure for detection and isolation of large and small plasmids. J Bacteriol. 1981 Mar;145(3):1365–1373. doi: 10.1128/jb.145.3.1365-1373.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kopecko D. J., Holcombe J., Formal S. B. Molecular characterization of plasmids from virulent and spontaneously occurring avirulent colonial variants of Shigella flexneri. Infect Immun. 1979 May;24(2):580–582. doi: 10.1128/iai.24.2.580-582.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. MCWHORTER A. C., BALL M. M., FREEMAN B. O. SALMONELLA RUBISLAW WITH 3 "NORMAL" FLAGELLAR ANTIGENS. J Bacteriol. 1964 Apr;87:967–967. doi: 10.1128/jb.87.4.967-967.1964. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Macrina F. L., Kopecko D. J., Jones K. R., Ayers D. J., McCowen S. M. A multiple plasmid-containing Escherichia coli strain: convenient source of size reference plasmid molecules. Plasmid. 1978 Jun;1(3):417–420. doi: 10.1016/0147-619x(78)90056-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ochman H., Gerber A. S., Hartl D. L. Genetic applications of an inverse polymerase chain reaction. Genetics. 1988 Nov;120(3):621–623. doi: 10.1093/genetics/120.3.621. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sanderson K. E., Roth J. R. Linkage map of Salmonella typhimurium, edition VII. Microbiol Rev. 1988 Dec;52(4):485–532. doi: 10.1128/mr.52.4.485-532.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Smith N. H., Beltran P., Selander R. K. Recombination of Salmonella phase 1 flagellin genes generates new serovars. J Bacteriol. 1990 May;172(5):2209–2216. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.5.2209-2216.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Smith N. H., Selander R. K. Sequence invariance of the antigen-coding central region of the phase 1 flagellar filament gene (fliC) among strains of Salmonella typhimurium. J Bacteriol. 1990 Feb;172(2):603–609. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.2.603-609.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Szekely E., Simon M. DNA sequence adjacent to flagellar genes and evolution of flagellar-phase variation. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jul;155(1):74–81. doi: 10.1128/jb.155.1.74-81.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wei L. N., Joys T. M. Covalent structure of three phase-1 flagellar filament proteins of Salmonella. J Mol Biol. 1985 Dec 20;186(4):791–803. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(85)90397-3. [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