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Infection and Immunity, September 1998, p. 4263-4267, Vol. 66, No. 9
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

The Phosphorylcholine Epitope Undergoes Phase Variation on a 43-Kilodalton Protein in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and on Pili of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Jeffrey N. Weiser,1,* Joanna B. Goldberg,2 Nina Pan,1 Lynn Wilson,3 and Mumtaz Virji3,dagger

Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania1; Department of Microbiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia2; and School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom3

Received 3 April 1998/Returned for modification 10 June 1998/Accepted 2 July 1998

Phosphorylcholine (ChoP) is a component of the teichoic acids of Streptococcus pneumoniae and has been recently identified on the lipopolysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae, also a major pathogen of the human respiratory tract. Other gram-negative pathogens that frequently infect the human respiratory tract were surveyed for the presence of the ChoP epitope as indicated by binding to monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) recognizing this structure. The ChoP epitope was found on a 43-kDa protein on all clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa examined and on several class I and II pili of Neisseria meningitidis. The specificity of the anti-ChoP MAb was demonstrated by the inhibition of binding in the presence of ChoP but not structural analogs. As in the case of H. influenzae, the expression of this epitope was phase variable on these species. In P. aeruginosa, this epitope was expressed at detectable levels only at lower growth temperatures. Expression of the ChoP epitope on piliated neisseriae displayed phase variation, both linked to pilus expression and independently of fully piliated bacteria.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: 301B Johnson Pavilion, Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6076. Phone: (215) 573-3511. Fax: (215) 898-9557. E-mail: Weiser{at}mail.med.upenn.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Pathology and Microbiology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, United Kingdom.

Infection and Immunity, September 1998, p. 4263-4267, Vol. 66, No. 9
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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