This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Heilpern, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Waldor, M. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Heilpern, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Waldor, M. K.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2003, p. 1037-1044, Vol. 185, No. 3
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.3.1037-1044.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

pIIICTX, a Predicted CTX{phi} Minor Coat Protein, Can Expand the Host Range of Coliphage fd To Include Vibrio cholerae

Andrew J. Heilpern and Matthew K. Waldor*

Division of Geographic Medicine/Infectious Disease, New England Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02111

Received 19 August 2002/ Accepted 11 November 2002

CTX{phi} is a filamentous bacteriophage that encodes cholera toxin. CTX{phi} infection of its host bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, requires the toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) and the products of the V. cholerae tolQRA genes. Here, we have explored the role of OrfU, a predicted CTX{phi} minor coat protein, in CTX{phi} infection. Prior to the discovery that it was part of a prophage, orfU was initially described as an open reading frame of unknown function that lacked similarity to known protein sequences. Based on its size and position in the CTX{phi} genome, we hypothesized that OrfU may function in a manner similar to that of the coliphage fd protein pIII and mediate CTX{phi} infection as well as playing a role in CTX{phi} assembly and release. Deletion of orfU from CTX{phi} dramatically reduced the number of CTX{phi} virions detected in supernatants from CTX{phi}-bearing cells. This defect was complemented by expression of orfU in trans, thereby confirming a role for this gene in CTX{phi} assembly and/or release. To evaluate the requirement for OrfU in CTX{phi} infection, we introduced fragments of orfU into gIII in an fd derivative to create OrfU-pIII fusions. While fd is ordinarily unable to infect V. cholerae, an fd phage displaying the N-terminal 274 amino acids of OrfU could infect V. cholerae in a TCP- and TolA-dependent fashion. Since our findings indicate that OrfU functions as the CTX{phi} pIII, we propose to rename OrfU as pIIICTX. Our data also provide new evidence for a conserved pathway for filamentous phage infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Geographic Medicine/Infectious Disease, NEMC 041, 750 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111. Phone: (617) 636-7618. Fax: (617) 636-5292. E-mail: mwaldor{at}lifespan.org.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2003, p. 1037-1044, Vol. 185, No. 3
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.3.1037-1044.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Winther-Larsen, H. C., Wolfgang, M. C., van Putten, J. P. M., Roos, N., Aas, F. E., Egge-Jacobsen, W. M., Maier, B., Koomey, M. (2007). Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type IV Pilus Expression in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Effects of Pilin Subunit Composition on Function and Organelle Dynamics. J. Bacteriol. 189: 6676-6685 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Pang, B., Yan, M., Cui, Z., Ye, X., Diao, B., Ren, Y., Gao, S., Zhang, L., Kan, B. (2007). Genetic Diversity of Toxigenic and Nontoxigenic Vibrio cholerae Serogroups O1 and O139 Revealed by Array-Based Comparative Genomic Hybridization. J. Bacteriol. 189: 4837-4849 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Cascales, E., Buchanan, S. K., Duche, D., Kleanthous, C., Lloubes, R., Postle, K., Riley, M., Slatin, S., Cavard, D. (2007). Colicin Biology. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 71: 158-229 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Maiti, D., Das, B., Saha, A., Nandy, R. K., Nair, G. B., Bhadra, R. K. (2006). Genetic organization of pre-CTX and CTX prophages in the genome of an environmental Vibrio cholerae non-O1, non-O139 strain. Microbiology 152: 3633-3641 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Safa, A., Bhuyian, N. A., Nusrin, S., Ansaruzzaman, M., Alam, M., Hamabata, T., Takeda, Y., Sack, D. A., Nair, G. B. (2006). Genetic characteristics of Matlab variants of Vibrio cholerae O1 that are hybrids between classical and El Tor biotypes.. J Med Microbiol 55: 1563-1569 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Faruque, S. M., Bin Naser, I., Fujihara, K., Diraphat, P., Chowdhury, N., Kamruzzaman, M., Qadri, F., Yamasaki, S., Ghosh, A. N., Mekalanos, J. J. (2005). Genomic Sequence and Receptor for the Vibrio cholerae Phage KSF-1{Phi}: Evolutionary Divergence among Filamentous Vibriophages Mediating Lateral Gene Transfer. J. Bacteriol. 187: 4095-4103 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Campos, J., Martinez, E., Suzarte, E., Rodriguez, B. L., Marrero, K., Silva, Y., Ledon, T., del Sol, R., Fando, R. (2003). VGJ{phi}, a Novel Filamentous Phage of Vibrio cholerae, Integrates into the Same Chromosomal Site as CTX{phi}. J. Bacteriol. 185: 5685-5696 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Bayles, K. W., Welker, N. E., Winkler, M. E., Streips, U. N. (2003). Wind River Conference on Prokaryotic Biology--2002. J. Bacteriol. 185: 7-12 [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»