Functional study of Treponema pallidum genes using Borrelia burgdorferi as a surrogate system
10.3760/cma.j.issn.0254-5101.2015.08.002
- VernacularTitle:以伯氏疏螺旋体为载体菌研究梅毒螺旋体的基因功能
- Author:
Yanping YIN
;
Bin SHI
;
Zhide TANG
;
Yongliang LOU
;
Xiaofeng YANG
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Treponema pallidum;
Borrelia burgdorferi;
Shuttle vector;
Gene regulation
- From:
Chinese Journal of Microbiology and Immunology
2015;(8):568-572
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective To employ Borrelia burgdorferi( B. burgdorferi) , a culturable and genetical-ly transformable spirochete, as a surrogate system to study Treponema pallidum ( T. pallidum) gene function. Methods Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the T. pallidum gene tp0111 encodes the putative sigma factor RpoN. We constructed a B. burgdorferi shuttle vector harboring tp0111. The shuttle vector was then trans-formed into the B. burgdorferi rpoN mutant strain. The phenotype of the resulting B. burgdorferi strain was then determined. Results We successfully constructed the B. burgdorferi rpoN mutant carrying the T. palli-dum gene tp0111. We found that tp0111 could partially complement the B. burgdorferi rpoN mutant. Con-clusion This work provides the first experimental evidence showing that tp0111 is the rpoN gene of T. palli-dum. It also demonstrates that B. burgdorferi can be used as a surrogate system for studying T. pallidum gene function.
