CLONING, SEQUENCING AND EXPRESSION OF THE FLAGELLIN CORE PROTEIN AND OTHER GENES ENCODING STRUCTURAL PROTEINS OF THE VIBRIO-CHOLERAE FLAGELLUM

Vibrio cholerae is a Gram-negative bacterium with a single polar flage llum. Motility is an important virulence factor for this non-invasive pathogen. We cloned and sequenced a locus in V. cholerae V86 (El Tor, Inaba) that contained five different structural genes of the flagellum . The cloned genes and their products were assigned names and function s based on homology with sequences of similar genes and their products from other related bacteria. All of these genes of V. cholerae V86, n amely, flgI, J, M, L. and flaA, were transcribed in the same direction . These genes respectively encoded the P- and L-ring proteins, the hoo k-associated proteins 1 and 3 and the flagellin core protein of the fl agellum. Our data indicated the presence of more than one flagellar lo cus in V. cholerae which could provide a means of immunoavoidance duri ng infection. When compared with homologs in other bacteria, the flage llin core protein of V. cholerae exhibited conservation in the N- and C-termini, but had diverged in the central region. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.