Determinants of the regulation of Helicobacter pylori adhesins include repeat sequences in both promoter and coding regions as well as the two-component system ArsRS.

Purpose: We investigated the transcription of adhesin-encoding genes sabA, hopZ and labA in Helicobacter pylori strain J99. Each possesses a repeating homopolymeric nucleotide tract within their promoter regions, and sabA and hopZ possess repeats within their 5' coding regions.

Methodology: We altered the repeat lengths associated with the adhesin genes and quantified mRNA levels by real-time quantitative PCR.