Table 3.

Amino acid alignments of fHbp in the antigenic variant 1, 2 and 3 groups^a

Antigenic Variant Group	Amino Acid Range	Amino Acid Sequenceb
1	22–51	APLDHKDKGL	QSLTLDQSVR	KNEKLKLAAQ
2	22–51	APLDHKDKGK	QSLTLDQSVR	KNEKLKLAAQ
3	27–56	APLDHKDKGL	KSLTLEDSIP	QNGTLTLSAQ
*********
1	52–79	GAEKTYGNGD	---SLNTGKL	KNDKVSRFDF
2	52–79	GAEKTYGNGD	---SLNTGKL	KNDKVSRFDF
3	57–87	GAEKTFKAGD	KDNSLNTGKL	KNDKISRFDF
******

^aAlignment of a region of the N-domains of fHbps in the antigenic variant 1, 2 and 3 groups (strains MC58, 8047 and M1239, respectively).

^bThe positions that differed among JAR 4-postive fHbp variant 1 or 2 wildtype proteins and JAR-4 negative variant 3 wildtype proteins are indicated with an asterisk below the sequences. The consensus tripeptide sequence DHK was identified by phage display (Table 2). The DHK residues and the KDN and YGN tripeptides affecting JAR-4 binding were identified by site-specific mutagenesis (Figures 2, 3 and 4, respectively). The respective tripeptides are shown in bold.