Competence for natural genetic transformation in the Streptococcus bovis group streptococci S. infantarius and S. macedonicus.

ABSTRACT: Natural genetic transformation is common among many species of the genus Streptococcus, but it has never, or rarely, been reported for the Streptococcus pyogenes and S. bovis groups of species, even though many streptococcal competence genes and the competence regulators SigX, ComR, and ComS are well conserved in both groups. To explore the incidence of competence in the S. bovis group, 25 isolates of S. infantarius and S. macedonicus were surveyed by employing culture in chemically defined media devoid of peptide nutrients and treatment with synthetic candidate pheromone peptides predicted from the sequence of the gene comS. Approximately half of strains examined were transformable, many transforming at high rates comparable to those for the well-characterized streptococcal natural transf

SUBMITTER: Morrison DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3676052 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature