A novel transposon construct expressing PhoA with potential for studying protein expression and translocation in Mycoplasma gallisepticum

Abstract

Background: Mycoplasma gallisepticum is a major poultry pathogen and causes severe economic loss to the poultry industry. In mycoplasmas lipoproteins are abundant on the membrane surface and play a critical role in interactions with the host, but tools for exploring their molecular biology are limited. Results: In this study we examined whether the alkaline phosphatase gene (phoA) from Escherichia coli could be used as a reporter in mycoplasmas. The promoter region from the gene for elongation factor Tu (ltuf ) and the signal and acylation sequences from the vlhA1.1 gene, both from Mycoplasma gallisepticum, together with the coding region of phoA, were assembled in the transposon-containing ..