CHARACTERIZATION OF A MAJOR MYCOPLASMA PENETRANS LIPOPROTEIN AND OF ITS GENE

A novel mycoplasmal species designated as Mycoplasma penetrans has bee n isolated recently from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus. p35, a major antigen extracted from the membrane of this mycop lasma using Triton X-114 has been found to be a lipoprotein. After pro teolytic treatment of p35, the sequence of one of the resulting peptid es was determined and a corresponding oligonucleotide was deduced. Usi ng this oligonucleotide as a probe the p35 gene was cloned and sequenc ed. Sequence analysis revealed an amino-terminal signal peptide with a potential acylation site which would result in a 35.3 kDa mature prod uct. In addition, the p35 gene was followed by an open reading frame w ith a corresponding polypeptide partially homologous to p35, in partic ular to the N-terminus region.