Taken together, these observations suggest

structural and functional similarities between BMAA0649 and members of the Oca family of autotransporters. Hence, we designated this ORF of B. mallei ATCC23344 boaA (B urkholderia Oca-like adhesin A ). Table 1 lists characteristics of the boaA gene and its encoded product. Figure 1 Structural features of the boaA and boaB gene products. Different regions of the predicted B. mallei ATCC23344 BoaA (A), B. pseudomallei K96243 BoaA (B) and B. pseudomallei K96243 BoaB (C) proteins are depicted with the positions of residues defining selected domains. The horizontal brackets outline selected regions of the BoaA and BoaB proteins and the percent identity between these regions is Alectinib clinical trial shown below the brackets. Transporter modules (OM anchors) and helical linkers were identified using the PSIPRED secondary structure prediction algorithm. The colored boxes show the relative position and number of repeated SLST motifs. Table 1 Characteristicsa Ulixertinib in vivo of boaA and boaB genes and their encoded products Strain Gene Chromosome Locus tag GenBank accession # ORF (nt) Predicted protein (aa) MW (Da) Potential signal sequence cleavage siteb B.mallei                    ATCC23344 boaA 2 BMAA0649 YP_105401.1 4608 1535 140,689 WA18▼GV    NCTC10247 boaA 2 BMA10247_A1776 YP_001078959.1 5301 1766 162,744 WA77▼GV B. pseudomallei

                   K96243 boaA 2 BPSS0796 YP_110805.1 4962 1653 151,565 WA18▼GV    DD503 boaA ND – EF423807 4680 1559 143,209 WA18▼AL    1710b boaA 2 BURPS1710b_A2381 YP_337531.1 4881 1626 149,383 WA10▼AL    K96243 boaB 1 BPSL1705 YP_108306.1 enough 4821 1606 148,811 VA23▼GT    DD503 boaB ND – EF423808 4965 1654 154,117 VA71▼GT    1710b boaB 1 BURPS1710b_2168 YP_333563.1 4965 1654

154,059 VA71▼GT aSequence analyses were performed using Vector NTI (Invitrogen) and online tools available through the ExPASy Proteomics Server. bThe putative signal sequence cleavage site was determined using the SignalP 3.0 server ND = not determined The published genome of B. pseudomallei K96243 was also found to specify a boaA gene product (BPSS0796, Fig 1B) that is 92.7% identical to that of B. mallei ATCC23344. Oligonucleotide primers were designed to amplify the entire boaA gene from the B. pseudomallei strain used in our laboratory, DD503, and sequence analysis of this amplicon predicted a gene product that is 94.4% and 90.6% identical to BoaA of B. mallei ATCC23344 and B. pseudomallei K96243, respectively. Database searches with the NCBI genomic BLAST service also identified boaA in several B. pseudomallei and B. mallei isolates. All nine B. mallei and 23 B. pseudomallei strains for which sequences are available through this service were found to have the gene. Characteristics of some of these ORFs are listed in Tables 1 and 2.