Characterization of a surface antigen of Eimeria tenella sporozoites and synthesis from a cloned cDNA in Escherichia coli.

An antigenic surface protein of Eimeria tenella sporozoites has been identified that is the target of two neutralizing monoclonal antibodies Ptn 7.2A4/4 and Ptn 9.9D12. The antigen as isolated from the parasite is composed of a 17 kDa polypeptide and a 8 kDa polypeptide linked by a disulfide bridge. De novo synthesis of the antigen does not begin until approximately 16-20 h after the initiation of oocyst sporulation. A cDNA library was constructed using mRNA from sporulated oocysts and a clone encoding the antigen was isolated. The Ta4 gene encodes a single polypeptide of 25 kDa which contains the 17 and 8 kDa polypeptides. The protein has been synthesized in Escherichia coli either directly or as part of a beta-galactosidase fusion protein. The products synthesized in E. coli are single polypeptides and are not cleaved to two polypeptides as is seen in the parasite. The products accumulate in bacteria in an insoluble form which can be solubilized and renatured to an immunoreactive form.

The genome of Trypanosoma cruzi contains a constitutively expressed, tandemly arranged multicopy gene homologous to a major heat shock protein.

cDNA libraries have been constructed in the plasmid vector pUC18 with mRNA isolated from both epimastigotes and trypomastigotes of the Peru strain of Trypanosoma cruzi. Pools of randomly selected clones were analyzed by hybridization-selection-translation. Translation products were immunoprecipitated either with normal human sera or with sera from patients with Chagas' disease (chagasic sera), and the immunoprecipitates were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. With this approach, a cDNA clone (pEC5) was identified which encodes a portion of an 85,000-Mr polypeptide. A genomic clone was subsequently isolated (FG1) by using oligonucleotide probes derived from the DNA sequence of this cDNA clone. A portion of this clone was isolated and sequenced, and the coding region for the protein was identified. Computer analysis of the predicted protein sequence indicates that this protein is closely related to the 83,000-Mr heat shock protein (hsp83) of Drosophila melanogaster, the hsp90 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the hsp90 of chicken. This gene is tandemly organized in the T. cruzi genome as a cluster of 6 to 10 copies.

Chromosomal location and function of genes affecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa nitrate assimilation.

Seven known genes control Pseudomonas aeruginosa nitrate assimilation. Three of the genes, designated nas, are required for the synthesis of assimilatory nitrate reductase: nasC encodes a structural component of the enzyme; nasA and nasB encode products that participate in the biosynthesis of the molybdenum cofactor of the enzyme. A fourth gene (nis) is required for the synthesis of assimilatory nitrite reductase. The remaining three genes (ntmA, ntmB, and ntmC) control the assimilation of a number of nitrogen sources. The nas genes and two ntm genes have been located on the chromosome and are well separated from the known nar genes which encode synthesis of dissimilatory nitrate reductase. Our data support the previous conclusion that P. aeruginosa has two distinct nitrate reductase systems, one for the assimilation of nitrate and one for its dissimilation.

The assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrate reductases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are encoded by different genes.

The phenotypes of certain mutant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were reported to be pleiotropic for nitrate reduction; these strains were selected for their inability to dissimilate nitrate and were found also to have lost the ability to assimilate nitrate. We now report that the isolation procedure selected two mutations, one in genes encoding the synthesis of dissimilatory nitrate reductase (narA, narB or narE) and another in one of the genes (nas) encoding the synthesis of assimilatory nitrate reductase. Thus in P. aeruginosa dissimilatory and assimilatory nitrate reductases are genetically distinct. However, a loss of both enzymes is necessary to prevent slow dissimilatory growth on nitrate. Assimilatory nitrate reductase requires molybdenum to function, as does dissimilatory nitrate reductase. Lesions in narD affect incorporation of molybdenum into both enzymes, and hence exert a pleiotropic effect.

Isolation and analysis of mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa unable to assimilate nitrate.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa can reduce nitrate to nitrite and evenutally to nitrogen gas by the denitrification pathway, thereby providing the organism with a mode of respiration and ATP generation in the absence of oxygen. P. aeruginosa can also reduce nitrate to nitrite through an assimilatory pathway that provides the cell with reduced nitrogen for biosyntheses. In order to establish whether this organism synthesizes a single nitrate reductase protein that functions in both pathways, or produces one for each pathway, we isolated mutants blocked in the assimilation of nitrate. These mutants are unaffected in the reduction of nitrate be the denitrification pathway, although they produce low or undectable levels of assimilatory nitrate reductase. On the basis of transductional analysis, the mutations were found to be distributed among four genes designated nasA, nasB, nasC, and nasD. Shifting a nasA mutant from anaerobic to aerobic growth eliminated the culture's ability to reduce nitrate, i.e. the anaerobic nitrate reductase cannot function in the presence of oxygen. Thus P. aeruginosa can synthesize two distinct proteins which reduce nitrate to nitrite: an assimilatory nitrate reductase and a dissimilatory nitrate reductase. If conditions of growth are fully aerobic, the latter is not synthesized and does not function. The former, synthesized under the control of at least four genes, is repressed by readily available nitrogen sources.