Construction and Investigation of the Vaccine Strain Francisella tularensis without iglC genes. Communication 1

Abstract

Using site-specific mutagenesis constructed were the variants of the vaccine strain F. tularensis subsp. holarctica 15 with the deleted iglC genes. Identified was the fact that genome of the strain 15 contained two copies of iglC gene. Deletion of one of them as well as both had little effect on the cultural-morphological and growth properties of the microbe. At the same time F. tularensis 15 lacking one copy of the iglC gene propagated in mice macrophages several times slower, than the original strain. Inactivation of both of the copies in the chromosome leaded to the emergence of a variant incapable of intracellular reproduction. This capacity in F. tularensis 15/23-2 with two inactivated iglC gene copies was partially recovered after integration of a complementing plasmid. Therewith the data mentioned above testifies to the significance of iglC gene for the process of reproduction in macrophages.