G. Layhschmitt et al., THE ADHESIN RELATED 30-KDA PROTEIN OF MYCOPLASMA-PNEUMONIAE EXHIBITS SIZE AND ANTIGEN VARIABILITY, FEMS microbiology letters, 152(1), 1997, pp. 101-108
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a pathogenic bacterium colonizing epithelial
cells of the human respiratory tract. Using an erythrocyte binding ass
ay we isolated a cytadsorption negative mutant designated M7 which has
lost 12 of a total of 13 repetitive sequences of a proline rich C-ter
minal region of the adhesin related 30-kDa protein. The truncated adhe
sin related protein of 22 kDa showed reduced antigenicity compared to
the corresponding wild-type protein. Moreover, the mutant M7 proved in
capable of adhering to erythrocytes and to a human colon carcinoma cel
l fine indicating that the repetitive C-terminal region of the 30-kDa
protein is essential for effective cytadherence. The adhesin related 3
0-kDa protein as well as the truncated forms of the corresponding prot
ein were accessible to carboxypeptidase Y which clearly shows surface
exposure of the C-terminus of this protein.