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PMID: 7768796 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Comparative ultrastructural and functional studies of Helicobacter pylori and Helicobacter mustelae flagellin mutants: both flagellin subunits, FlaA and FlaB, are necessary for full motility in Helicobacter species.

Journal of bacteriology ·Vol. 177 ·No. 11 ·1995-06-00 ·Pages 3010-20

Josenhans C, Labigne A, Suerbaum S

Abstract

Helicobacter mustelae causes chronic gastritis and ulcer disease in ferrets. It is therefore considered an important animal model of human Helicobacter pylori infection. High motility even in a viscous environment is one of the common virulence determinants of Helicobacter species. Their sheathed flagella contain a complex filament that is composed of two distinctly different flagellin subunits, FlaA and FlaB, that are coexpressed in different amounts. Here, we report the cloning and sequence determination of the flaA gene of H. mustelae NCTC12032 from a PCR amplification product. The FlaA protein has a calculated molecular mass of 53 kDa and is 73% homologous to the H. pylori FlaA subunit. Isogenic flaA and flaB mutants of H. mustelae F1 were constructed by means of reverse genetics. A method was established to generate double mutants (flaA flaB) of H. mustelae F1 as well as H. pylori N6. Genotypes, motility properties, and morphologies of the H. mustelae flagellin mutants were determined and compared with those of the H. pylori flaA and flaB mutants described previously. The flagellar organizations of the two Helicobacter species proved to be highly similar. When the flaB genes were disrupted, motility decreased by 30 to 40%. flaA mutants retained weak motility by comparison with strains that were devoid of both flagellin subunits. Weakly positive motility tests of the flaA mutants correlated with the existence of short truncated flagella. In H. mustelae, lateral as well as polar flagella were present in the truncated form. flaA flaB double mutants were completely nonmotile and lacked any form of flagella. These results show that the presence of both flagellin subunits is necessary for complete motility of Helicobacter species. The importance of this flagellar organization for the ability of the bacteria to colonize the gastric mucosa and to persist in the gastric mucus remains to be proven.

Related Genes
flaA flaB
MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Base Sequence Flagella/physiology,ultrastructure Flagellin/genetics Genes, Bacterial Helicobacter/genetics,ultrastructure Helicobacter pylori/genetics,ultrastructure Microscopy, Electron Molecular Sequence Data Mutagenesis, Insertional Sequence Alignment Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Chemicals
Flagellin flaA protein, bacteria flaB flagellin
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Josenhans C
Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Immunologie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany.
Labigne A
Suerbaum S
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Article Info
Journal
Journal of bacteriology
Abbr.
J Bacteriol
ISSN
0021-9193
DOI
10.1128/jb.177.11.3010-3020.1995
Published
1995-06-00
Pages
3010-20
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
2985120R
PMCID
PMC176987
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
L38478
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/jb.177.11.3010-3020.1995 PMC Full Text View journal details
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