THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCE OF THE GENES, fanE AND fanF, OF Escherichia coli K99 FIMBRIAE

K99 fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli consist of eight different subunits. A major subunit called fimbrillin forms fimbrial structure and a minor subunit called adhesin localizes at the tip of fimbriae and recognizes host receptor ganglioside. Within this eight gene cluster, fanE and fanF have not yet been sequenced. In this study, fanE and fanF genes were sequenced by analyzing several DNA fragments produced by endonuclease or exonuclease digestion. The fanE gene encoded 227 amino acids containing 20 amino acids of signal peptide starting from GTG (valine) and showed a homology to fanA-fanB. The fanF gene encoded 271 amino acids containing 20 amino acids of signal peptide starting from ATG (methionine) and showed homologies to the fanD gene, fimbrillin gene of F41,adhesin gene of P fimbriae (papG) and adhesin gene of Type 1 fimbriae (fimH). E and F subunits had fifteen and fourteen hydrophobic domains, respectively, which periodically appeared possibly forming a hydrophobic region