BIFIDOBACTERIAL CELL-WALL PROTEINS (BIFOP) IN BIFIDOBACTERIUM-GLOBOSUM

Nearly 150 strains of Bifidobacterium globosum were isolated from faec es of calf, chicken, lamb, rabbit and rat, from sewage, from rumen con tent and from human infant faeces between 1962 and 1973 and scored by SDS-PAGE for the presence of cell-wall-related proteins, i.e. BIFOP (b ifid outer proteins); their apparent molecular masses ranged from 94.5 to 34 kDa and were designated A to L. Purified preparations from six of these ten proteins were employed to produce polyclonal rabbit antis era for use in immunoblots to investigate the interrelationships of th e major antigens, A, B and C (94.5-85.5 kDa) and their distribution in strains of various origin. Two antigens differently migrating (or pol ymorphic forms) reacted with anti-BIFOP F serum (called F- and F+); th e identity of BIFOP E with respect to these antigens was studied with anti-E serum. Only one antigen in all strain preparations reacted to a nti-BIFOP H serum, which was raised against an antigen purified from a 13.5-MDa plasmid-bearing strain from rumen.