Antigenic variation of gonococcal pilin expression in vivo: analysis of the strain FA1090 pilin repertoire and identification of the pilS gene copies recombining with pilE during experimental human infection The GenBank accession numbers for the sequences reported in this paper are U58840–U58851, U61269, L28978, L28980, L28987 and L28990–L28992.

Abstract excerpt

Antigenic variation of gonococcal pilin involves a family of variable genes that undergo homologous recombination, resulting in transfer of variant sequences from the pilS silent gene copies into the complete pilE expression locus. Little is known about the specific recombination events that are involved in assembling new variant pilin genes in vivo. One approach to understanding pilin variation in vivo is to...