title: Identification of Legionella species by lipopolysaccharide antigen pattern.
abstract: Electrophoretic analysis of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) extracts from 430 previously serotyped Legionella isolates and 28 American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) non-Legionella pneumophila Legionella reference strains representing different Legionella species and serogroups has been performed. LPS was prepared from Legionella suspensions by sonication and proteinase K digestion. Following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, LPS bands were either stained with silver nitrate or transferred onto a nitrocellulose membrane and detected with rabbit antibodies raised against L. pneumophila serogroup 5, which was known to cross-react with L. pneumophila serogroups 1 to 14. Silver staining revealed that each of the 28 ATCC non-L. pneumophila Legionella strains possessed an individual and characteristic LPS banding pattern. The LPS profile was defined by the molecular weight of the visualized bands and/or the individual ladder-like LPS pattern. It was demonstrated by immunoblotting that non-L. pneumophila Legionella strains did not react with the serogroup 5 antiserum, thus allowing for the differentiation between L. pneumophila and non-L. pneumophila species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, Robert Koch-Institut, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jürgens
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Fehrenbach
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D003429:Cross Reactions; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007875:Legionella / Q000145:classification* / Q000276:immunology*; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011817:Rabbits; D012703:Serotyping; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides