Flagella are essential for motility and have been implicated to be one
of the pathogenic determinants. The flagellum of Campylobacter jejuni
is a polymeric structure of a 62-kd protein. Using a high-affinity fl
agellin antibody to screen a lambda gt11 phage genomic expression libr
ary of C. jejuni strain TGH9011 (Serotype LIO36), a recombinant phage
clone lambda gt11RK that expresses the C. jejuni flagellin protein was
isolated. The recombinant lambda gt11RK produced a 56-kd protein upon
induction with isopropylthiogalactoside, which reacted specifically w
ith anti-flagellin antibody. The flagellin gene was sequenced, and com
parative analysis of the nucleotide and amino acid sequence identified
a region of the flagellin that shows hypervariability among different
Campylobacter species and strains.