Characterization of the pilin gene of Moraxella bovis Dalton 2d and expression of pili from M. bovis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The pilin gene of Moraxella bovis Dalton 2d was isolated by cloning in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The nucleotide sequence of this gene encodes a prepilin of 156 amino acid residues. When high levels of pilin were expressed from the gene in P. aeruginosa, by using the pL promoter of bacteriophage lambda inserted upstream of the coding sequence, pili which were indistinguishable from pili of M. bovis were produced.