Phase and antigenic variation in mycoplasmas

作者：Citti Christine^*; Nouvel Laurent Xavier; Baranowski Eric

来源：Future Microbiology, 2010, 5(7): 1073-1085.

DOI：10.2217/FMB.10.71

• antigenic variation
• Immune evasion
• lipoproteins
• minimal cell
• mycoplasmas
• phase variation
• population dynamics
• surface diversity

With their reduced genome bound by a single membrane, bacteria of the Mycoplasma species represent some of the simplest autonomous life forms. Yet, these minute prokaryotes are able to establish persistent infection in a wide range of hosts, even in the presence of a specific immune response. Clues to their success in host adaptation and survival reside, in part, in a number of gene families that are affected by frequent, stochastic genotypic changes. These genetic events alter the expression, the size and the antigenic structure of abundant surface proteins, thereby creating highly versatile and dynamic surfaces within a clonal population. This phenomenon provides these wall-less pathogens with a means to escape the host immune response and to modulate surface accessibility by masking and unmasking stably expressed components that are essential in host interaction and survival.

• 出版日期2010-7