Disease relevance of sepA

• Characterization of a sepA mutant indicated that SepA, the major protein secreted by Shigella flexneri growing in laboratory media, might be involved in invasion and destruction of the host intestinal epithelium [1].

High impact information on sepA

• However, in the rabbit ligated ileal loop model, the sepA mutant exhibited an attenuated virulence, which suggests that SepA might play a role in tissue invasion [2].
• Construction and phenotypic characterization of a sepA mutant indicated that SepA is required neither for entry into cultured epithelial cells nor for intercellular dissemination [2].
• We report the identification, cloning, and nucleotide sequence determination of the sepA gene, analysis of SepA secretion, and construction and characterization of a sepA mutant [2].
• There are also genes absent in the S. flexneri serotype 6 plasmid, including the sepA gene encoding serine protease, the major secreted protein of S. flexneri serotype 2a, and the stbAB genes, which encode one of the two partition systems found in S. flexneri serotype 5 [3].

Biological context of sepA

• The sepA gene is carried by the virulence plasmid and codes for a 150 kDa precursor [2].

References