Pjm. Nuijten et al., DNA rearrangements in the flagellin locus of an flaA mutant of Campylobacter jejuni during colonization of chicken ceca, INFEC IMMUN, 68(12), 2000, pp. 7137-7140
Campylobacter jejuni is an enteropathogen for humans but commensal for chic
kens. In both hosts, the flagella and motility are important colonization f
actors. The flagellin gene is duplicated in Campylobacter, but only one fla
gellin gene, flaA, is sufficient for motility. We found that, during coloni
zation of the chicken intestine, a nonmotile flaA mutant of C. jejuni under
went rearrangements within its flagellin locus, thereby regaining its motil
ity and colonization capacity. In contrast, in vitro motile revertants isol
ated from liquid culture showed different flagellin DNA rearrangements than
after reversion in the chicken.