A LIPOPROTEIN SIGNAL PEPTIDE ENCODED BY THE STAPHYLOCOCCAL CONJUGATIVE PLASMID PSK41 EXHIBITS AN ACTIVITY RESEMBLING THAT OF ENTEROCOCCUS-FAECALIS PHEROMONE CAD1

The traH gene of the staphylococcal conjugative plasmid pSK41 has rece ntly been shown to encode a lipoprotein (N. Firth, K. P. Ridgway, M. E . Byrne, P. D. Fink, L. Johnson, I. T. Paulsen, and R. A. Skurray, Gen e 136:13-25, 1993). Here we report that traH encodes a product recogni zed as a pheromone by Enterococcus faecalis cells harboring the conjug ative plasmid pAD1. The mature traH product is not essential for this phenomenon, as expression of pheromone-like activity was found to requ ire sequences encoding only the pro-TraH signal peptide.