1887

Abstract

Surface antigenic variation was investigated in , an agent that produces chronic arthritis in rats which shares several features with many mycoplasma-induced diseases and thus defines a well-characterized model system. Hyperimmune rabbit antisera (anti-ISR1, anti-PG6, anti-H606 and anti-158p10) to whole organisms were used as immunological probes in Western immunoblots of four prototype strains (ISR1, PG6, H606 and D263) and five rat-passaged substrains (ISR1p1, ISR1p7, ISR1p8, 158p10 and D263p1). Several prominent antigens were identified that varied in expression. By Triton X-114 phase fractionation and treatment of whole cells with trypsin and carboxypeptidase Y, these strain-variant antigens were shown to be integral membrane proteins with C-termini and portions of the polypeptide chains oriented outside the membrane. Western blot immunoscreening of a large number of randomly selected clonal isolates and well-established clonal lineages from stock cultures of ISR1p7, 158p10, PG6 and H606 revealed an expanded repertoire of variant membrane proteins whose expression was subject to independent, reversible phase variation. Colony immunoblots of these clonal populations with a hyperimmune rabbit antiserum to a gel-purified variant membrane protein (P36) showed that this phase switching occurred at a high frequency (10to 10per generation). Detailed immunological and biochemical characterization of the phase-variant membrane proteins demonstrated that they are: (i) antigenically related or distinct; (ii) apparently specific to particular strain populations; (iii) proteins or lipoproteins; (iv) major immunogens of , recognized by serum antibodies from convalescent rat; and (v) able to undergo variation in expression during passage. Thus, possesses a complex system capable of creating large repertoires of cell surface phenotypes which may affect the multiple interactions of this organism with its host and dictate its potential as a successful infectious agent and pathogen.

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1995-12-01
2024-11-04
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