title: Molecular and genetic analyses of the putative Proteus O antigen gene locus.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: TEDA School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, TEDA, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torzewska
authors.forename: Xiaojuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.forename: Xiaoting
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rozalski
authors.forename: Zhujun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Haijian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D019081:O Antigens