Disease relevance of crmA

• GapA and CrmA coexpression is essential for Mycoplasma gallisepticum cytadherence and virulence [1].

High impact information on crmA

• In the third mutant, the insertion was mapped within the crmA gene, which is located immediately downstream of the gapA gene as part of the same operon [2].
• An HA(-) mutant deficient in producing CrmA, mHAD3, was obtained by disrupting the crmA gene by using transposition mutagenesis [3].
• Phenotypic switching in M. gallisepticum hemadsorption (HA) was found to correlate with phase variation of the GapA cytadhesin concurrently with that of the CrmA protein, which exhibits cytadhesin-related features and is encoded by a gene located downstream of the gapA gene as part of the same transcription unit [3].
• Complementation of R(high) with wild-type crmA resulted in the transformant (SDCA) that lacked the cytadherence and virulence phenotype comparable to that found in R(high) and GT5 [1].
• CrmA is encoded by the second gene in the gapA operon and shares significant sequence homology to the ORF6 gene of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which has been shown to play an accessory role in the cytadherence process [1].

Biological context of crmA

• The gene encoding p116 was found to be immediately downstream of gapA in the same operon and was designated crmA [4].
• We are currently constructing a shuttle vector containing both the wild-type gapA and crmA for transformation into R high to assess the role of CrmA in the cytadherence process [4].

References