Galactose residues on the lipooligosaccharide of Moraxella catarrhalis 26404 form the epitope recognized by the bactericidal antiserum from conjugate vaccination.

ABSTRACT: Lipooligosaccharide (LOS) from Moraxella catarrhalis has the potential to elicit bactericidal antibodies against the pathogen. We generated LOS-based conjugate vaccines that elicited bactericidal antibodies in animal models. However, epitopes on the LOS recognized by the functional anti-LOS antibodies remain unidentified. In this study, a mutant strain, D4, which lost the recognition by a bactericidal anti-LOS rabbit serum in Western blotting was generated from a serotype C strain 26404 by random transposon mutagenesis. Sequence analysis revealed there was an insertion of a kanamycin resistance gene in the lgt2 gene of D4, which encodes beta(1-4)-galactosyltransferase. An isogenic lgt2 mutant, 26404lgt2, was constructed. Structural analysis indicated that the mutant strain produced a trunc

SUBMITTER: Yu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2519401 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature