Skip to main content
PMC home page
Infection and Immunity logoLink to Infection and Immunity
. 1988 Aug;56(8):2047–2053. doi: 10.1128/iai.56.8.2047-2053.1988

Immunochemical characterization of and isolation of the gene for a Borrelia burgdorferi immunodominant 60-kilodalton antigen common to a wide range of bacteria.

K Hansen 1, J M Bangsborg 1, H Fjordvang 1, N S Pedersen 1, P Hindersson 1
PMCID: PMC259521  PMID: 2840400

Abstract

By crossed immunoelectrophoresis and Western blotting (immunoblotting), it was shown that Borrelia burgdorferi expresses the 60-kilodalton Common Antigen (CA) that is cross-reactive with an equivalent antigen in a wide range of remotely related bacteria. B. burgdorferi CA is strongly immunogenic. A B. burgdorferi genomic library was constructed by using a plasmid cloning system. Escherichia coli recombinants were screened for expression of immunodominant B. burgdorferi antigens. One of the recombinant clones expressed the 60-kilodalton CA of B. burgdorferi. The DNA region encoding B. burgdorferi CA was localized on a 2.3-kilobase fragment of the plasmid pKH1. CA may have pathogenetic implications in Lyme borreliosis, since the CA of mycobacteria recently has been shown to play a role in the etiology of experimental autoimmune arthritis. The extensive cross-reactivity of this antigen may account for the low diagnostic specificity of the currently used serological tests in Lyme borreliosis.

Full text

PDF
2047

Images in this article

2049Image
on p.2049
2049Image
on p.2049
2050Image
on p.2050
2050Image
on p.2050

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Asbrink E., Hovmark A., Hederstedt B. The spirochetal etiology of acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans Herxheimer. Acta Derm Venereol. 1984;64(6):506–512. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barbour A. G., Burgdorfer W., Grunwaldt E., Steere A. C. Antibodies of patients with Lyme disease to components of the Ixodes dammini spirochete. J Clin Invest. 1983 Aug;72(2):504–515. doi: 10.1172/JCI110998. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barbour A. G. Isolation and cultivation of Lyme disease spirochetes. Yale J Biol Med. 1984 Jul-Aug;57(4):521–525. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Birnboim H. C., Doly J. A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1513–1523. doi: 10.1093/nar/7.6.1513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chanda P. K., Ono M., Kuwano M., Kung H. Cloning, sequence analysis, and expression of alteration of the mRNA stability gene (ams+) of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1985 Jan;161(1):446–449. doi: 10.1128/jb.161.1.446-449.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. De Bruyn J., Bosmans R., Turneer M., Weckx M., Nyabenda J., Van Vooren J. P., Falmagne P., Wiker H. G., Harboe M. Purification, partial characterization, and identification of a skin-reactive protein antigen of Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Infect Immun. 1987 Jan;55(1):245–252. doi: 10.1128/iai.55.1.245-252.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gillis T. P., Miller R. A., Young D. B., Khanolkar S. R., Buchanan T. M. Immunochemical characterization of a protein associated with Mycobacterium leprae cell wall. Infect Immun. 1985 Aug;49(2):371–377. doi: 10.1128/iai.49.2.371-377.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hansen K., Hindersson P., Pedersen N. S. Measurement of antibodies to the Borrelia burgdorferi flagellum improves serodiagnosis in Lyme disease. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Feb;26(2):338–346. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.2.338-346.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Henikoff S. Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III creates targeted breakpoints for DNA sequencing. Gene. 1984 Jun;28(3):351–359. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90153-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hindersson P., Knudsen J. D., Axelsen N. H. Cloning and expression of treponema pallidum common antigen (Tp-4) in Escherichia coli K12. J Gen Microbiol. 1987 Mar;133(3):587–596. doi: 10.1099/00221287-133-3-587. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hindersson P., Petersen C. S., Pedersen N. S., Høiby N., Axelsen N. H. Immunological cross-reaction between antigen Tp-4 of Treponema pallidum and an antigen common to a wide range of bacteria. Acta Pathol Microbiol Immunol Scand B. 1984 Aug;92(4):183–188. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1984.tb02818.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kaijser B. Immunological studies of an antigen common to many gram-negative bacteria with special reference to E. coli. Characterization and biological significance. Int Arch Allergy Appl Immunol. 1975;48(1):72–81. doi: 10.1159/000231293. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Plikaytis B. B., Carlone G. M., Pau C. P., Wilkinson H. W. Purified 60-kilodalton Legionella protein antigen with Legionella-specific and nonspecific epitopes. J Clin Microbiol. 1987 Nov;25(11):2080–2084. doi: 10.1128/jcm.25.11.2080-2084.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Remaut E., Stanssens P., Fiers W. Plasmid vectors for high-efficiency expression controlled by the PL promoter of coliphage lambda. Gene. 1981 Oct;15(1):81–93. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(81)90106-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Shinnick T. M., Sweetser D., Thole J., van Embden J., Young R. A. The etiologic agents of leprosy and tuberculosis share an immunoreactive protein antigen with the vaccine strain Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Infect Immun. 1987 Aug;55(8):1932–1935. doi: 10.1128/iai.55.8.1932-1935.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Shinnick T. M., Vodkin M. H., Williams J. C. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis 65-kilodalton antigen is a heat shock protein which corresponds to common antigen and to the Escherichia coli GroEL protein. Infect Immun. 1988 Feb;56(2):446–451. doi: 10.1128/iai.56.2.446-451.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sompolinsky D., Hertz J. B., Høiby N., Jensen K., Mansa B., Pedersen V. B., Samra Z. An antigen common to a wide range of bacteria. 2. A biochemical study of a "common antigen" from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand B. 1980 Oct;88(5):253–260. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1980.tb02637.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Steere A. C., Grodzicki R. L., Kornblatt A. N., Craft J. E., Barbour A. G., Burgdorfer W., Schmid G. P., Johnson E., Malawista S. E. The spirochetal etiology of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 1983 Mar 31;308(13):733–740. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198303313081301. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Thole J. E., Dauwerse H. G., Das P. K., Groothuis D. G., Schouls L. M., van Embden J. D. Cloning of Mycobacterium bovis BCG DNA and expression of antigens in Escherichia coli. Infect Immun. 1985 Dec;50(3):800–806. doi: 10.1128/iai.50.3.800-806.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Thole J. E., Hindersson P., de Bruyn J., Cremers F., van der Zee J., de Cock H., Tommassen J., van Eden W., van Embden J. D. Antigenic relatedness of a strongly immunogenic 65 kDA mycobacterial protein antigen with a similarly sized ubiquitous bacterial common antigen. Microb Pathog. 1988 Jan;4(1):71–83. doi: 10.1016/0882-4010(88)90049-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Towbin H., Staehelin T., Gordon J. Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Sep;76(9):4350–4354. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.9.4350. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Vodkin M. H., Williams J. C. A heat shock operon in Coxiella burnetti produces a major antigen homologous to a protein in both mycobacteria and Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1988 Mar;170(3):1227–1234. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.3.1227-1234.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Wilske B., Preac-Mursic V., Schierz G., Busch K. V. Immunochemical and immunological analysis of European Borrelia burgdorferi strains. Zentralbl Bakteriol Mikrobiol Hyg A. 1986 Dec;263(1-2):92–102. doi: 10.1016/s0176-6724(86)80108-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Young R. A., Bloom B. R., Grosskinsky C. M., Ivanyi J., Thomas D., Davis R. W. Dissection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens using recombinant DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 May;82(9):2583–2587. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.9.2583. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Young R. A., Mehra V., Sweetser D., Buchanan T., Clark-Curtiss J., Davis R. W., Bloom B. R. Genes for the major protein antigens of the leprosy parasite Mycobacterium leprae. Nature. 1985 Aug 1;316(6027):450–452. doi: 10.1038/316450a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. van Eden W., Holoshitz J., Nevo Z., Frenkel A., Klajman A., Cohen I. R. Arthritis induced by a T-lymphocyte clone that responds to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and to cartilage proteoglycans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Aug;82(15):5117–5120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.15.5117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. van Eden W., Thole J. E., van der Zee R., Noordzij A., van Embden J. D., Hensen E. J., Cohen I. R. Cloning of the mycobacterial epitope recognized by T lymphocytes in adjuvant arthritis. Nature. 1988 Jan 14;331(6152):171–173. doi: 10.1038/331171a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Infection and Immunity are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES