Phase variation of the gonococcal siderophore receptor FetA

• Published in: Molecular microbiology Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 585 - 593
• Main Authors: Carson, Susan D. Biegel, Stone, Barbara, Beucher, Margaret, Fu, Jennifer, Sparling, P. Frederick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.05.2000; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Alkaline Phosphatase; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins - genetics; Base Sequence; Cyclin-Dependent Kinases - genetics; ferric enterobactin receptor; FetA protein; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Molecular Sequence Data; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Neisseria gonorrhoeae - genetics; Neisseria gonorrhoeae - growth & development; Neisseria gonorrhoeae - metabolism; Poly C - genetics; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Receptors, Cell Surface - genetics; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - metabolism
• ISSN: 0950-382X; 1365-2958
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2958.2000.01873.x

FetA, the recently characterized gonococcal ferric enterobactin receptor, exhibited extremely rapid phase variation between high‐ and low‐expression levels. The frequency of phase variation was ≈ 1.3% in both directions in gonococcal strain FA1090. FetA expression in the ‘high phase’ was significantly greater than the level of expression in the ‘low phase’. Expression levels correlated with the number of cytosine residues in a string of cytosines located close to the transcriptional start site for fetA between the putative −10 and −35 consensus sequences. Antibody production against FetA commonly occurs in infected patients, and we therefore hypothesize that phase variation reflects a balance between the advantages of being able to use a ferric siderophore as an iron source and evasion of the host immune response.