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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2002, p. 728-738, Vol. 184, No. 3
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.3.728-738.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Isolation and Characterization of BTF-37: Chromosomal DNA Captured from Bacteroides fragilis That Confers Self-Transferability and Expresses a Pilus-Like Structure in Bacteroides spp. and Escherichia coli

Gayatri Vedantam and David W. Hecht*

Departments of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology and Program in Molecular Biology, Loyola University Medical Center and Hines VA Hospital, Maywood, Illinois

Received 29 August 2001/ Accepted 31 October 2001

We report the isolation and preliminary characterization of BTF-37, a new 52-kb transfer factor isolated from Bacteroides fragilis clinical isolate LV23. BTF-37 was obtained by the capture of new DNA in the nonmobilizable Bacteroides-Escherichia coli shuttle vector pGAT400{Delta}BglII using a functional assay. BTF-37 is self-transferable within and from Bacteroides and also self-transfers in E. coli. Partial DNA sequencing, colony hybridization, and PCR revealed the presence of Tet element-specific sequences in BTF-37. In addition, Tn5520, a small mobilizable transposon that we described previously (G. Vedantam, T. J. Novicki, and D. W. Hecht, J. Bacteriol. 181:2564–2571, 1999), was also coisolated within BTF-37. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy of Tet element-containing Bacteroides spp. and BTF-37-harboring Bacteroides and E. coli strains revealed the presence of pilus-like cell surface structures. These structures were visualized in Bacteroides spp. only when BTF-37 and Tet element strains were induced with subinhibitory concentrations of tetracycline and resembled those encoded by E. coli broad-host-range plasmids. We conclude that we have captured a new, self-transferable transfer factor from B. fragilis LV23 and that this new factor encodes a tetracycline-inducible Bacteroides sp. conjugation apparatus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Loyola University Medical Center, Bldg. 54, Room 101, 2160 S. First Ave., Maywood, IL 60153. Phone: (708) 202-2792. Fax: (708) 202-2269. E-mail: dhecht{at}luc.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2002, p. 728-738, Vol. 184, No. 3
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.3.728-738.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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