Disease relevance of pagC

• We have created a suicide vector that allows the stable chromosomal insertion of heterologous antigen genes within the phoP-activated gene C (pagC) of Salmonella and permits the expression of heterologous antigens as fusion proteins between the first 84 amino acids of PagC and the chosen antigen [1].
• One such gene, pagC, encodes an envelope protein with amino acid similarity to an epithelial cell invasion protein of Yersina enterocolitica, Ail, and a bacteriophage lambda outer membrane protein, Lom [2].
• The observation that pagC did not confer an invasive phenotype to E. coli further suggests that PagC is not an invasion factor [3].
• Mice orally immunized with attenuated S. typhimurium expressing C fragment under control of the pagC promoter [BRD509(pKK/ppagC/C frag)] mounted the highest tetanus toxoid-specific serum antibody response [4].

High impact information on pagC

• The rck gene encodes a 17-kD outer membrane protein that is homologous to a family of virulence-associated outer membrane proteins, including pagC and Ail [5].
• Strains with pagC, phoP, or phoQ mutations have decreased survival in cultured mouse macrophages [6].
• The intracellularly transcribed pagC promoter was upregulated by Salmonella in all tissues, defining the infected PP as a unique environment that initiates expression of intracellularly induced genes and yet permits transcription of fliC [7].
• Characterization of the Salmonella typhimurium pagC/pagD chromosomal region [8].
• The protein product, DNA sequence, and transcript of pagC were determined [9].

Biological context of pagC

• A plasmid suicide vector that allows deletion of the pagC gene and stable insertion of heterologous antigen genes within the deleted pagC locus has been constructed and used successfully in S. typhimurium and S. typhi [10].

Anatomical context of pagC

• Constructs with the pagC promoter were shown to drive increased expression of chimeric 987P fimbriae in macrophages as well as in Mg(2+)-poor media, mimicking a major environmental signal found in Salmonella-containing endocytic vacuoles of macrophages [11].

Other interactions of pagC

• Three smooth TnphoA insertion mutants of Typhimurium TML (invH, invG and pagC) were hypo-invasive in both the Caco-2 and HEp-2 cell invasion assays but not in the RIIA [12].

References