• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.4 s.71
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• pp.553-560
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• 2005

The stf (Salmonella typhimurium fimbriae) operon consisting of stfA(CDEFG assumes to encode putative fimbriae. The complete stf operon is existed in S. typhimurium and S. choleraesuis, whereas it is absent in S. typhi. Analyses of the amino acid residues between major subunit StfA of the Stf fimbriae and those of known other fimbriaes suggested that Stf belongs to class I type fimbriae. Through comparison of StfD chaperone with the other fimbrial chaperones, and of C-terminus in subunits of Stf fimbriae, it belongs to FGS (with a short Fl-G1 loop) subfamily. In order to investigate the expression of stf operon, we have constructed a Salmonella strain containing a chromosomal stfA::lacZYA transcriptional fusion, resulting in S. typhimurium $_X8532$. The strain $_X8532$ lacked the expression of \beta-galactosidase$ under normal culture conditions. However, with longer incubation time of the S. typhimurium $_X8532$, we have isolated 21 individual strains exhibiting $Lac^+$ phenotype. $Lac^+$ phenotype was appeared as approximately 0.03 frequency per generation. All isolates expressed lacZ constitutively in the various environmental conditions. Various global regulatory proteins including RpoS, OmpR, and CpxR were not involved in the regulation of the stf operon. A S. typhimurium $_X8661$ mutant lacking stfAC function attenuated 6.7 folds more than that of wild type $_X3761$ in the mouse virulence test, suggesting in the somehow involved in the Salmonella pathogenesis.