Allelic variation of polymorphic locus lytB, encoding a choline-binding protein, from streptococci of the mitis group.

ABSTRACT: The choline-binding protein LytB, an N-acetylglucosaminidase of Streptococcus pneumoniae, is the key enzyme for daughter cell separation and is believed to play a critical pathogenic role, facilitating bacterial spreading during infection. Because of these peculiarities LytB is a putative vaccine target. To determine the extent of LytB polymorphism, the lytB alleles from seven typical, clinical pneumococcal isolates of various serotypes and from 13 additional streptococci of the mitis group (12 atypical pneumococci and the Streptococcus mitis type strain) were sequenced. Sequence alignment showed that the main differences among alleles were differences in the number of repeats (range, 12 to 18) characteristic of choline-binding proteins. These differences were located in the region corresp

SUBMITTER: Moscoso M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1317417 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature