Affiliation:
1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-0312
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The nosocomial pathogen
Enterococcus faecalis
has a unique pheromone-inducible conjugative mating system. Conjugative transfer of the
E. faecalis
plasmid pCF10 is specifically induced by the cCF10 peptide pheromone (LVTLVFV). Genomic sequence information has recently allowed the identification of putative structural genes coding for the various enterococcal pheromones (D. B. Clewell et al., Mol. Microbiol. 35:246-247, 2000). The cCF10 pheromone sequence LVTLVFV was found within an open reading frame designated
ccfA
, encoding a putative lipoprotein precursor. Several other pheromone sequences were found in similar locations within other predicted lipoproteins. CcfA shows significant sequence relatedness to the
Escherichia coli
protein YidC, an inner membrane protein translocase, as well as to a large number of homologs identified in gram-positive and in gram-negative bacteria. Analysis of the deduced CcfA amino acid sequence suggested that mature cCF10 peptide could be formed from the proteolytic degradation of its signal peptide. Expression of the cloned
ccfA
gene with an inducible expression vector dramatically increased cCF10 production by
E. faecalis
and also resulted in cCF10 production by
Lactococcus lactis
, a non-pheromone producer. Site-directed mutagenesis of the
ccfA
sequence encoding the cCF10 peptide confirmed that
ccfA
was a functional genetic determinant for cCF10.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
Cited by
74 articles.
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