title: A ribosomal protein of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis having partial epitope identity with HLA-B27.
abstract: The phenotype HLA-B27 is common in patients who develop reactive arthritis after having an infection. One hypothesis concerning the pathogenesis of reactive arthritis is that molecular mimicry between HLA-B27 and certain bacterial components might be involved. It is known that an infection with Yersinia is commonly associated with reactive arthritis in B27 positive patients. Therefore, we were interested to investigate whether cross-reactivity between Yersinia and HLA-B27 exists. A gene library of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was created in the plasmid vector pUC13. One of the resulting clones contained a gene encoding an intracytoplasmic protein that seems to have partial epitope identity with HLA-B27. It reacted in western blot. ELISA and immunoprecipitation with three different HLA-B27 specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies of the IgG and IgM class. However DNA-sequencing of the cloned Yersinia gene and the predicted amino acid sequence revealed only a very remote similarity with HLA-B27 in the primary structure. Instead, an extremely high degree of similarity with the ribosomal protein L4 of the S10 operon of Escherichia coli was identified indicating that the protein encoded by the cloned Y. pseudotuberculosis gene is a corresponding ribosomal protein.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Department of Medicine, Los Angeles 90024.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001168:Arthritis / Q000276:immunology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D000939:Epitopes / Q000032:analysis*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015011:Yersinia pseudotuberculosis / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D000939:Epitopes; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins; C056368:ribosomal protein L4