Disease relevance of gseA

• Lipopolysaccharide from E. coli kdtA::kan constructs complemented by gseA reacts strongly with antibodies directed against the genus-specific epitope of Chlamydia, whereas lipopolysaccharide from parental E. coli K-12 does not [1].
• We now demonstrate that a single C. trachomatis gene (gseA) is sufficient to impart this trait to Escherichia coli [2].

High impact information on gseA

• The DNA sequence of gseA was determined and aligned to that published recently for C. trachomatis serovar L2 [3].
• Thus, gseA exhibits species specificity at the DNA level, whereas its gene product results in the synthesis of a carbohydrate antigen with genus specificity [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of gseA

• Sequence analysis showed that the TGGE melting-profile patterns were able to detect single nucleotide variations within gseA and allowed the arrangement of the serovars in groups of both identical nucleotide sequences and sequences containing identical sites of nucleotide substitutions [4].

References