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Volume 142, Issue 10

Uptake-sequence-independent DNA transformation exists in Free

Abstract

A DNA transformation dose-response curve of piliated (P) gonococci with the use of cloned DNA containing a fusion showed saturation at high and low levels of transforming DNA. At low DNA concentrations, transformation of the P strain MS11-A was effectively inhibited by a 1000-fold molar excess of the gonococcal transformation uptake sequence (GCUS). The same molar excess of the GCUS did not inhibit transformation of MS11-A at high DNA concentrations. In MS11-B2, a nonpiliated (P), pilin-nonproducing, isogenic variant of MS11-A, the GCUS did not inhibit transformation at any level of transforming DNA. These data suggest that two mechanisms of transformation exist in P cells: one which utilizes the GCUS and one which does not. In MS11-B2 P cells, no evidence was found for the presence of the GCUS-dependent mechanism, suggesting that transformation in this background occurs solely by the GCUS-independent mechanism.

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Keyword(s): competition , dose-response and pili
© Society for General Microbiology 1996
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1996-10-01
2024-04-19
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Uptake-sequence-independent DNA transformation exists in Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Microbiology 142, 2839 (1996); https://doi.org/10.1099/13500872-142-10-2839
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/13500872-142-10-2839
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