Natural genetic transformation in Streptococcus gordonii: comX imparts spontaneous competence on strain wicky.

J Bacteriol. 1996 October; 178(19): 5831–5835.

PMCID: PMC178432

R D Lunsford and J London

Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, National Institute of Dental Research, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Lunsford@yoda.nidr.nih.gov

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Abstract

Streptococcus gordonii Wicky becomes competent only after stimulation with conditioned medium from strain Challis as a source of competence factor (CF). A 3.2-kbp genomic fragment from Challis was found to impart spontaneous competence on Wicky by a complementation assay. Wicky clones containing the fragment secreted a heat-sensitive activity that induced competence in Wicky and in a comA insertion mutant of Challis. Activity was localized to a putative open reading frame, comX, with the potential to encode a 52-amino-acid peptide. comX had no similarity to known sequences, and a comX::ermAM insertion mutant of Challis transformed normally and secreted CF. These data suggest that a CF-independent pathway for competence induction exists in S. gordonii.

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Selected References

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