Potential relevance of Chlamydia pneumoniae surface proteins to an effective vaccine

The surface of Chlamydia pneumoniae is covered with proteins but their exac t: identification is not known probably because of the presence of conforma tional epitopes. A family of 21 pmp genes has been found by DNA sequencing. In common, these genes have the capacity to encode the amino acid motif GG AI, Several of the genes have the capacity to encode outer membrane protein s of about 100 kDa. Thus, they are candidate genes to encode the protein(s) present in the 98-kDa protein band of the C. pneumoniae outer membrane com plex. The production of recombinant GGAI proteins is described as is the us e of polyclonal antibodies raised against the recombinant GGAI proteins to determine their expression in C. pneumoniae elementary bodies. At least thr ee of the proteins, Omp4, 5, and 11, are expressed.