Variability of phoP/phoQ and rovA Genes Sequences - Global Regulators of the Plague Agent Life Span

Compared are the gene sequences of the global phoP/phoQ and rovA transcription regulators in original Yersinia pestis strains of different subtypes. Detected is overall identity of the sequenced phoQ fragment and high conservatism of the rovA gene. All the plague agent strains belonging to the main subspecies have a missense mutation in phoP gene. It is a substitution of a single nucleotide G→A in the position 643 from the beginning of the gene, which causes amino-acid residue shift Gly→Ser in the position 215 in polypeptide chain of the PhopP protein, and, is a possible cause of alteration of the PhoP transcription activity in Yersinia pestis strains belonging to the main subspecies.