Molecular analysis of superoxide dismutase in Campylobacter lari

Abstract

The superoxide dismutase (SOD) gene clusters, sodB and sodC, and their adjacent genetic loci from a urease-positive thermophilic Campylobacter (UPTC) CF89-12 strain were analyzed molecularly, and compared with those of thermophilic campylobacters. The UPTC CF89-12 strain carried sodB [structural gene 654 base pairs (bp)] and sodC (540 bp) genes, as did the Campylobacter lari RM2100 reference strain. However, the other three thermophilic Campylobacter jejuni, C. coli and C. upsaliensis reference strains carried only a single sodB gene, and no sodC. Although sodB and sodC in the UPTC strain shared relatively high nucleotide sequence similarities (92.9 % and 91.7 %, respectively) with the corresponding genes in the C. lari RM2100 strain, the sodB gene in the UPTC CF89-12 and C. lari RM2100 strains shared relatively low nucleotide sequence similarities with those in C. jejuni NCTC11168 (80.8 % and 81.7 %), C. coli RM2228 (82.0 % and 83.1 %) and C. upsaliensis RM3195 (75.9 % and 77.0 %), respectively. All PCR amplifications of sodB and sodC gene segments with 28 C. lari isolates, including 14 UPTC isolates, gave positive results. C. lari organisms were shown to carry both the sodB and sodC genes with extremely high frequency. More high-SOD activity was seen with the C. lari isolates (n∈=∈9), including UPTC, than was seen with the other three thermophilic Campylobacter and Helicobacter pylori organisms. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and the University of Milan.