Highly conserved surface proteins of oral spirochetes as adhesins and potent inducers of proinflammatory and osteoclastogenic factors.

ABSTRACT: Oral spirochetes include enormously heterogeneous Treponema species, and some have been implicated in the etiology of periodontitis. In this study, we characterized highly conserved surface proteins in four representative oral spirochetes (Treponema denticola, T. lecithinolyticum, T. maltophilum, and T. socranskii subsp. socranskii) that are homologs of T. pallidum Tp92, with opsonophagocytic potential and protective capacity against syphilis. Tp92 homologs of oral spirochetes had predicted signal peptides (20 to 31 amino acids) and molecular masses of 88 to 92 kDa for mature proteins. They showed amino acid sequence identities of 37.9 to 49.3% and similarities of 54.5 to 66.9% to Tp92. The sequence identities and similarities of Tp92 homologs of oral treponemes to one another were 41.6 to

SUBMITTER: Jun HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2423102 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature