期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1991
卷号：88
期号：5
页码：1641-1645
DOI：10.1073/pnas.88.5.1641
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The genes encoding three lipoproteins of Vibrio cholerae were identified by a combination of DNA sequence analysis and [3H]palmitate labeling of hybrid proteins encoded by TnphoA gene fusions. The expression of these three lipoproteins, TagA, AcfD, and TcpC, was controlled by ToxR, the cholera toxin transcriptional activator. The involvement of other bacterial lipoproteins in conferring resistance to the bactericidal effects of complement prompted us to examine this possibility in V. cholerae. Remarkably, mutations in toxR and tcp genes (including tcpC), involved in the biogenesis of the toxin coregulated pili, rendered V. cholerae about 10(4)-10(6) times more sensitive to the vibriocidal activity of antibody and complement. Since V. cholerae is a noninvasive organism and toxR and tcp mutants are highly defective in intestinal colonization in animals and humans, these results raise the possibility that resistance to a gut-associated, "complement-like" bactericidal activity may be a major virulence determinant of V. cholerae and other enterobacterial species.
