Genetic organization and sequence of the promoter-distal region of the tcp gene cluster of Vibrio cholerae.

The nucleotide sequence of the promoter distal region of the major operon associated with biosynthesis of TCP, the toxin coregulated pilus of Vibrio cholerae has been determined. The genes tcpR, tcpD, tcpS, tcpT, tcpE and tcpF are organized to permit translational coupling and are followed by an inverted repeat structure which is likely to act as a strong Rho-independent terminator. TcpS and TcpF possess N-terminal signal sequences and would be expected to be periplasm and outer membrane located, respectively. TcpT and, to a lesser extent, TcpE show homology to protein transport and secretion proteins identified in a number of other bacteria. TcpR and TcpD are also predicted to be localized in the membrane based on their hydrophobicity profiles. In the case of TcpD, this may be in the outer membrane, as the N terminus is reminiscent of the TcpA signal sequence processed by TcpJ. Taken together with other data on the tcp region, it is clear that the types of proteins involved in the biogenesis of TCP are, at least in some cases, related to those associated with type-4 pilus biosynthesis but differ markedly from those for other well-described fimbrial systems, such as Type I, K88, K99 or Pap pili. The complete sequence data for TCP biosynthesis-controlling genes are now available and represent the only complete example of a type-4 pilus-like system.