Identification of a Two‐Component Signal Transduction System Involved in Fimbriation of <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i>

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  • Jun‐ichiro Hayashi
    Department of Periodontology School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University Aichi Nagoya 464‐8650 Japan
  • Kiyoshi Nishikawa
    Department of Microbiology School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University Aichi Nagoya 464‐8650 Japan
  • Risa Hirano
    Department of Microbiology School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University Aichi Nagoya 464‐8650 Japan
  • Toshihide Noguchi
    Department of Periodontology School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University Aichi Nagoya 464‐8650 Japan
  • Fuminobu Yoshimura
    Department of Microbiology School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University Aichi Nagoya 464‐8650 Japan

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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Porphyromonas gingivalis</jats:italic>, a periodontopathogen, is an oral anaerobic Gram‐negative bacterium with numerous fimbriae on the cell surface. Fimbriae have been considered to be an important virulence factor in this organism. We analyzed the genomic DNA of transposon‐induced, fimbria‐deficient mutants derived from ATCC 33277 and found that seven independent mutants had transposon insertions within the same restriction fragment. Cloning and sequencing of the disrupted region from one of the mutants revealed two adjacent open reading frames (ORFs) which seemed to encode a two‐component signal transduction system. We also found that six of the mutants had insertions in a gene, <jats:italic>fimS</jats:italic>, a homologue of the genes encoding sensor kinase, and that the insertion in the remaining one disrupted the gene immediately downstream, <jats:italic>fimR</jats:italic>, a homologue of the response regulator genes in other bacteria. These findings suggest that this two‐component regulatory system is involved in fimbriation of <jats:italic>P. gingivalis</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

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