Gdn. Pearson et al., CTX GENETIC ELEMENT ENCODES A SITE-SPECIFIC RECOMBINATION SYSTEM AND AN INTESTINAL COLONIZATION FACTOR, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 90(8), 1993, pp. 3750-3754
In Vibrio cholerae, the genes encoding cholera toxin (ctxAB) are locat
ed on a segment of DNA (termed the ''core'' region) that is flanked by
two or more copies of a repeated sequence called RS1. Together these
DNA units comprise the CTX genetic element. Evidence presented here su
ggests that RS1 sequences encode a site-specific recombination system,
which allows integration of a suicide plasmid carrying RS1 into an 18
-base-pair sequence (attRS1) located on the chromosome of nontoxigenic
V. cholerae strains. Strains of V. cholerae with large deletions remo
ving attRS1 and the entire CTX genetic element no longer undergo site-
specific recombination with the RS1 sequence. Additionally, these dele
tion strains show a defect in intestinal colonization. Recombination e
xperiments localize the gene responsible for enhancing colonization to
a portion of the core region of the CTX element. The identified gene
encodes a peptide that is highly similar in amino acid sequence to the
flexible pilin of Aeromonas hydrophila. These results have important
implications in the construction of stable, live attenuated cholera va
ccines.