Rickettsial ompB promoter regulated expression of GFPuv in transformed Rickettsia montanensis.
Abstract
Rickettsia spp. (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) are Gram-negative, obligate intracellular, alpha-proteobacteria that have historically been associated with blood-feeding arthropods. Certain species cause typhus and spotted fevers in humans, but others are of uncertain pathogenicity or may be strict arthropod endosymbionts. Genetic manipulation of rickettsiae should facilitate a better understanding of their interactions with hosts. We transformed a species never associated with human disease, Rickettsia montanensis, by electroporation with a TN5 transposon (pMOD700) containing green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) and chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) genes under regulation of promoters cloned from the Rickettsia rickettsii ompB gene, and isolated a Chloramphenicol-resistant GFP-fluorescent rickettsiae population (Rmontanensis700). The Rmontanensis700 rickettsiae contained a single transposon integrated near an acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase gene in the rickettsial chromosome. Northern blots showed that GFPuv and CAT mRNAs were both expressed as two transcripts of larger and smaller than predicted length. Western immunoblots showed that Rmontanensis700 and E. coli transformed with a plasmid containing the pMOD700 transposon bot...Continue Reading
References
Prevalence of Rickettsia species in Canadian populations of Dermacentor andersoni and D. variabilis.
Citations
Nonselective Persistence of a Rickettsia conorii Extrachromosomal Plasmid during Mammalian Infection
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