TY - JOUR
T1 - The phasevarion
T2 - A genetic system controlling coordinated, random switching of expression of multiple genes
AU - Srikhanta, Yogitha N.
AU - Maguire, Tina L.
AU - Stacey, Katryn J.
AU - Grimmond, Sean M.
AU - Jennings, Michael P.
PY - 2005/4/12
Y1 - 2005/4/12
N2 - Several host-adapted bacterial pathogens contain methyltransferases associated with type III restriction-modification (R-M) systems that are subject to reversible, high-frequency on/off switching of expression (phase variation). To investigate the role of phase-variable expression of R-M systems, we made a mutant strain lacking the methyltransferase (mod) associated with a type III R-M system of Haemophilus influenzas and analyzed its phenotype. By microarray analysis, we identified a number of genes that were either up- or down-regulated in the mod mutant strain. This system reports the coordinated random switching of a set of genes in a bacterial pathogen and may represent a widely used mechanism.
AB - Several host-adapted bacterial pathogens contain methyltransferases associated with type III restriction-modification (R-M) systems that are subject to reversible, high-frequency on/off switching of expression (phase variation). To investigate the role of phase-variable expression of R-M systems, we made a mutant strain lacking the methyltransferase (mod) associated with a type III R-M system of Haemophilus influenzas and analyzed its phenotype. By microarray analysis, we identified a number of genes that were either up- or down-regulated in the mod mutant strain. This system reports the coordinated random switching of a set of genes in a bacterial pathogen and may represent a widely used mechanism.
KW - DNA methyltransferase
KW - Haemophilus influenzae
KW - Phase variation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=17344370012&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0501169102
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0501169102
M3 - Article
C2 - 15802471
AN - SCOPUS:17344370012
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 102
SP - 5547
EP - 5551
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 15
ER -