Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2026
Porphyromonas gingivalis as a Model Organism for Assessing Interaction of Anaerobic Bacteria with Host Cells
Published on: December 17, 2015
Analysis of a band 7/MEC-2 family gene of Porphyromonas gingivalis
S Walters1, P Rodrigues, M Bélanger
1Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry and Center for Molecular Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0424, USA.
Abstract:
In vivo-induced antigen technology has previously been used to identify 115 genes induced in Porphyromonas gingivalis W83 during human infection. The aim of this study was to determine if one of these genes, PG1334, was important for the virulence of P. gingivalis. Analysis of plaque samples from persons with periodontitis revealed that PG1334 was expressed in 88.0% of diseased sites, compared with 42.1% of healthy sites, even though P. gingivalis was detected in equal numbers from both sites. A mutant of PG1334 was found to adhere to and to invade better than the parent strain, but did not persist as well in human coronary artery endothelial cells. Additionally, the mutant did not persist as well in a mouse abscess model. This gene appears to be important for the virulence of P. gingivalis, both in vivo and in vitro.
