Molecular and genetic analyses of the putative Proteus O antigen gene locus.
Proteus species are well-characterized opportunistic pathogens primarily associated with urinary tract infections (UTI) of humans. The Proteus O antigen is one of the most variable constituents of the cell surface, and O antigen heterogeneity is used for serological classification of Proteus isolates. Even though most Proteus O antigen structures have been identified, the O antigen locus has not been well characterized. In this study, we identified the putative Proteus O antigen locus and demonstrated this region's high degree of heterogeneity by comparing sequences of 40 Proteus isolates using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). This analysis identified five putative Proteus O antigen gene clusters, and the probable functions of these O antigen-related genes were proposed, based on their similarity to genes in the available databases. Finally, Proteus-specific genes from these five serogroups were identified by screening 79 strains belonging to the 68 Proteus O antigen serogroups. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular characterization of the putative Proteus O antigen locus, and we describe a novel molecular classification method for the identification of different Proteus serogroups.
Wang
Quan
Q
TEDA School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, TEDA, Tianjin, China.
Torzewska
Agnieszka
A
Ruan
Xiaojuan
X
Wang
Xiaoting
X
Rozalski
Antoni
A
Shao
Zhujun
Z
Guo
Xi
X
Zhou
Haijian
H
Feng
Lu
L
Wang
Lei
L
D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D019081:O Antigens / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011511:Proteus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D019081:O Antigens