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Infection and Immunity, December 2001, p. 7616-7624, Vol. 69, No. 12
Department of Veterinary Science, University
of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0099
Received 20 June 2001/Returned for modification 27 August
2001/Accepted 26 September 2001
Leptospira interrogans is a mammalian pathogen which
must adapt to a range of new environmental conditions including
temperature change when it infects new hosts. In vitro studies of
organisms cultured at 30°C and shifted to 37°C for 5 to 7 days have
confirmed that synthesis of several proteins involved in equine
infection is regulated in response to temperature change (J. E. Nally, J. F. Timoney, and B. Stevenson, Infect. Immun.
69:400-404, 2001). In order to specifically identify antigenic
proteins upregulated at 37°C, groups of three ponies were immunized
with organisms shifted to 37°C for 5 to 7 days or with organisms
maintained at 30°C. A lambda ZAP II genomic DNA library was screened
with the pool of antisera to organisms shifted to 37°C. Clones
reactive with this pool but unreactive with the pool of pony antisera
to organisms cultured at 30°C were selected for further analysis. Sequence analysis of the first two clones identified open reading frames for proteins designated Qlp42 and Hsp15. Qlp42 is predicted to
be an outer membrane lipoprotein. Its synthesis was upregulated when
cultures were shifted from 30 to 37°C and downregulated when cultures
were shifted from 37 to 30°C. Although the predicted molecular mass
of Qlp42 is 39.8 kDa for the mature protein, Qlp42-specific equine
antiserum was reactive with two bands of 30 and 29.5 kDa. Hsp15 is a
stress response protein and a member of the Hsp20/
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.12.7616-7624.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Molecular Characterization of Thermoinduced
Immunogenic Proteins Q1p42 and Hsp15 of Leptospira
interrogans

-crystallin family. PCR detected homologues of qlp42 and
hsp15 in pathogenic serovars of L. interrogans
but not in the nonpathogenic Leptospira biflexa.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of antibody in convalescent sera
from mares naturally infected with L. interrogans suggest that Qlp42 is expressed during leptospiral infection.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: 108 Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, Department of Veterinary Science,
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0099. Phone: (859)
257-4172. Fax: (859) 257-5169. E-mail:
jtimoney{at}pop.uky.edu.
Present address: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of
Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
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