Survey of the irp2 gene among Yersinia pestis strains isolated during several plague outbreaks in northeast Brazil

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

Alzira M. P. De Almeida¹  Annie Guiyoule²  Nilma C. Leal¹  Elisabeth Carniel¹ 

[1] ,Institut Pasteur Laboratoire des Yersinia Paris,France

关键词: irp2;    chromosome;    deletion;    Yersinia pestis;    iron;    plague;    Brazil;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0074-02761994000100015

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

The irp2 gene codes for a 190 kDa protein (HMWP2) synthesidez when highly pathogenic Yersinia are grown under conditions of iron starvation. In this work, the presence of irp2 in strains of Y. pestis isolated from different hosts during several plague outbreaks in the foci of Northeast Brazil wasstudied. For this purpose, 53 strains were spotted onto nylon filters and their DNA was hybridized with the A13 probe which is a 1 kb fragment of the irp2 coding sequence. All strains except two hybridized with the probe. However, when the initial stock culture of these two strains were analyzed, they both proved to bepositive with the A13 probe, indicating that the locus was lost after subculturein vitro but was always present in vivo. To examine the degree of conservation of the chromosomal fragment carrying irp2 among Brazilian strains, the hybridization profiles of 15 strains from different outbreaks, different hosts and different foci were compared. The hybridization profiles of these strains were all identical when their DNA was digested with either EcoRI, EcorRV or AvaII, indicatingthat the restriction sites surrounding the irp2 locus are very well conserved among Northeast Brazilian strains of Y. pestis. Altogether, these results suggest that the irp2 chromosomal region should be of prime importance for the bacteria during their multiplication in the host.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
 All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License