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Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis

The galU gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been cloned and sequenced. Escherichia coli cells harboring the recombinant plasmid pMMG2 (galU) overproduced a protein that has been shown to correspond to a uridine 5′-triphosphate:glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (uridine diphosphoglucose [UDP-...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mollerach, Marta, López, Rubens, García, Ernesto
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1998
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2212384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9841918
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author Mollerach, Marta
López, Rubens
García, Ernesto
author_facet Mollerach, Marta
López, Rubens
García, Ernesto
author_sort Mollerach, Marta
collection PubMed
description The galU gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been cloned and sequenced. Escherichia coli cells harboring the recombinant plasmid pMMG2 (galU) overproduced a protein that has been shown to correspond to a uridine 5′-triphosphate:glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (uridine diphosphoglucose [UDP-Glc] pyrophosphorylase) responsible for the synthesis of UDP-Glc, a key compound in the biosynthesis of polysaccharides. A gene very similar to the S. pneumoniae galU has been found in a partial nucleotide sequence of the Streptococcus pyogenes genome. Knockout galU mutants of type 1 pneumococci are unable to synthesize a detectable capsule. An identical result was found in type 3 S. pneumoniae cells in spite of the fact that these bacteria contain a type-specific gene (cap3C) that also encodes a UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase. Since eukaryotic UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylases appear to be completely unrelated to their prokaryotic counterparts, we postulate that GalU may be an appropriate target for the search of new drugs to control the pathogenicity of bacteria like pneumococcus and S. pyogenes.
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spelling pubmed-22123842008-04-16 Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis Mollerach, Marta López, Rubens García, Ernesto J Exp Med Articles The galU gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been cloned and sequenced. Escherichia coli cells harboring the recombinant plasmid pMMG2 (galU) overproduced a protein that has been shown to correspond to a uridine 5′-triphosphate:glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (uridine diphosphoglucose [UDP-Glc] pyrophosphorylase) responsible for the synthesis of UDP-Glc, a key compound in the biosynthesis of polysaccharides. A gene very similar to the S. pneumoniae galU has been found in a partial nucleotide sequence of the Streptococcus pyogenes genome. Knockout galU mutants of type 1 pneumococci are unable to synthesize a detectable capsule. An identical result was found in type 3 S. pneumoniae cells in spite of the fact that these bacteria contain a type-specific gene (cap3C) that also encodes a UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase. Since eukaryotic UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylases appear to be completely unrelated to their prokaryotic counterparts, we postulate that GalU may be an appropriate target for the search of new drugs to control the pathogenicity of bacteria like pneumococcus and S. pyogenes. The Rockefeller University Press 1998-12-07 /pmc/articles/PMC2212384/ /pubmed/9841918 Text en This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles
Mollerach, Marta
López, Rubens
García, Ernesto
Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title_full Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title_fullStr Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title_full_unstemmed Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title_short Characterization of the galU Gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae Encoding a Uridine Diphosphoglucose Pyrophosphorylase: A Gene Essential for Capsular Polysaccharide Biosynthesis
title_sort characterization of the galu gene of streptococcus pneumoniae encoding a uridine diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase: a gene essential for capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2212384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9841918
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