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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2001, p. 63-70, Vol. 183, No. 1
Department of Microbiology, Moyne Institute
of Preventive Medicine,1 and Department
of Physiology,3 Trinity College, Dublin 2, and Dairy Production Research Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark,
Fermoy, County Cork,4 Republic of Ireland,
and Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and
Biochemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
838442
Received 21 July 2000/Accepted 11 October 2000
Previous studies have demonstrated that a proportion of
Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bovine mastitis
coproduce toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST) and staphylococcal
enterotoxin C (SEC). In this study, molecular genetic analysis of one
such strain, RF122, revealed the presence of a 15,891-bp putative
pathogenicity island (SaPIbov) encoding the genes for TSST
(tst), the SEC bovine variant (sec-bovine), and
a gene (sel) which encodes an enterotoxin-like protein. The
island contains 21 open reading frames specifying hypothetical proteins
longer than 60 amino acids including an integrase-like gene. The
element is bordered by 74-bp direct repeats at the left and right
junctions, and the integration site lies adjacent to the 3' end of the
GMP synthase gene (gmps) in the S. aureus
chromosome. SaPIbov contains a central region of sequence identity with
the previously characterized tst pathogenicity island SaPI1
(J. A. Lindsay et al., Mol. Microbiol. 29:527-543, 1998). A
closely related strain, RF120, of the same multilocus enzyme electrophoretic type, random amplified polymorphic DNA type, and ribotype, does not contain the island, implying that the element is
mobile and that a recent insertion/deletion event has taken place. TSST
and TSST/SEC-deficient mutants of S. aureus strain RF122
were constructed by allele replacement. In vitro bovine V
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.1.63-70.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Characterization of a Putative Pathogenicity Island
from Bovine Staphylococcus aureus Encoding Multiple
Superantigens
-specific
lymphocyte expansion analysis by culture supernatants of wild-type
strains and of tst and sec-bovine allele
replacement mutants revealed that TSST stimulates BTB13-specific T
cells whereas SEC-bovine stimulates BTB93-specific T cells. This
suggests that the presence of SaPIbov may contribute to modulation of
the bovine immune response.
*
Corresponding author. Present address: Laboratory of
Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of
Health, 903 South Fourth St., Hamilton, MT 59840. Phone: (406)
363-9305. Fax: (406) 363-9394. E-mail:
rfitzgerald{at}niaid.nih.gov.
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