Characterization of cross-reacting serotypes of Campylobacter jejuni

Abstract

Some strains of Campylobacter jejuni react with more than one reference antiserum from the serotyping scheme based on heat-stable lipopolysaccharide antigens. To investigate the molecular basis of these cross-reactions, lipopolysaccharides from the reference strains for serotypes 4, 13, 16, 43, and 50 and isolates recovered during two different outbreaks of C. jejuni enteritis were analyzed by passive haemagglutination and sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis coupled with silver staining or immunoblotting. The results showed that lipopolysaccharides from the reference strains and the isolates reacted with antisera prepared against heterologous strains in various combinations and that both silver-stainable, low Mr and non-silver-stainable, high Mr lipopolysaccharide components provided the antigenic determinants associated with the cross-reactions. There were strain-to-strain differences in the structural and antigenic properties of these macromolecules and shared antigenic determinants were not always provided by a common structure. Analysis of the silver-stained lipopolysaccharide profiles, outer membrane protein patterns, and chromosomal DNA restriction patterns indicated that strains with the same lipopolysaccharide profile could have the same outer membrane protein pattern and the same DNA restriction pattern. These results provided evidence for the presence of clones within this antigenic complex and implicated antigenic variation in some strains as the phenomenon responsible for the multiplicity of cross-reactions.

Flagellin gene polymorphism analysis ofCampylobacter jejuniinfecting man and other hosts and comparison with biotyping and somatic antigen serotyping

“…It is widely accepted that there are significant limitations to serotyping as a technique for the epidemiological investigation of C. jejuni, mainly because of the difficulties in obtaining and maintaining full panels of suitable antisera, and 9-2 because of non-typable strains and the degree of cross-reactivity of some strains, notably in antisera of the Penner scheme [5,28]. Also there is molecular evidence that some strains within the same serogroup are genotypically diverse [7,29] so the discriminatory power of serotyping alone does not meet the requirements of a modern typing scheme.…”

Discrimination of Major Capsular Types of Campylobacter jejuni by Multiplex PCR

“…The high degree of variability of CPS genes is consistent with CPS being the major serodeterminant of the Penner or heat-stable (HS) serotyping scheme (19). However, in some serotypes lipooligosaccharide (LOS) has been shown to play a role in Penner serospecificity (39). The Penner scheme is a passive slide hemagglutination assay that includes 47 C. jejuni serotypes (33,34).…”

“…The Penner scheme is a passive slide hemagglutination assay that includes 47 C. jejuni serotypes (33,34). Twenty-two of the 47 serotypes fall into complexes of what appear to be structurally related CPS types (39). Currently, the DNA sequences of 10 C. jejuni hypervariable CPS loci (HS1, HS19, HS23, HS36, HS23/36, HS41, HS2, HS6, HS4/13/64, HS53) have been reported (9,10,18,31,32), and these loci range in size from 15 to 34 kb.…”

Use of the Oxford Multilocus Sequence Typing Protocol and Sequencing of the Flagellin Short Variable Region To Characterize Isolates from a Large Outbreak of Waterborne Campylobacter sp. Strains in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada

“…The HS O:4 complex of strains is composed of a group of cross-reacting serotypes, including O:4, O:13, O:16, O:43, and O:50 (27), that may differentially express any single serotype or a combination of serotypes. Members of the HS O:4 complex were distributed through both the MLST and fla-SVR dendrograms ( Fig.…”