Investigations into the influence of the galactan of Mycoplasma mycoides on experimental infection with that organism

Abstract

PLATE LXXXII KUROTCHKIN (1937-38) and others have reported the formation of polysaccharide by Mycoplasma mycoides. Buttery and Plackett (1960) isolated, from washed organisms, a haptenic polysaccharide in a state of relative purity and characterised it as a galactan. Immunodiffusion studies (Plackett, Buttery and Cottew, 1963) revealed the presence in such preparations of several minor components in addition to the main component (P).Large amounts of polysaccharide were found also in culture media after growth of the organisms. A method for the recovery of this material from culture supernatants has been devised. The product behaves like P in serological tests, only a trace of a single minor component being detectable by immunodiffusion. For simplicity, we shall refer to galactan prepared from culture supernatant as galactan F, and to that prepared from washed ceUs as galactan C. Although P is the main component of both kinds of preparation, galactan C contains relatively more of the minor antigenic components detectable by immunodiffusion, whilst galactan F contains some non-specific material derived from constituents of the medium (Buttery, unpublished).During the acute phase of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, component P is often present in the blood at concentrations high enough to cause the '' eclipse " of agglutination reactions, as described by Turner (1962). Galactan and other antigens, as yet unidentified, were found in body fluids and in urine by Gourlay (1962Gourlay ( , 1964. Two mycoplasms, L2917 and N29, isolated from cases of bovine arthritis, produce a different polysaccharide, a glucan (Plackett et a[.), which also may appear in the blood during infection. This paper describes some of the consequences of the parenteral injection of galactan F into cattle and rabbits, and, in particular, the effect that it has on the course of an infection produced by the subcutaneous inoculation of Mycoplasma mycoides. Some observations with glucan prepared from a culture of mycoplasm L2917 are included for comparison. MATERIALS AND METHODS Strains of mycoplasmIn this work, two strains of Mycoplasma mycoides and a mycoplasm isolated in Queensland from cattle affected with arthritis, and referred to as L2917, were used.The strains of M. mycoides were VS, of a virulence usually sufficient to provoke some local swelling when injected subcutaneously into susceptible cattle, and KH3J, a strain of African origin so low in virulence that no such local swelling is produced (Hudson, 1965). J. PATH. BACT.-VOL. 94 (1967) 257 258 J. R. HUDSON, S. BUTTERY A N D G. S. COTTEW Preparation of galactan F and glucan Cultures of mycoplasms grown in 1 5-litre batches of supplemented BVF-OS medium (Plackett et al.) were centrifuged in a steam-driven Sharples supercentrifuge.The supernatant was heated at 100°C for 45 min., 150 ml. glacial acetic acid was added to bring the pH to 5.5, and heating at 100°C was continued for 45 min. The mixture was filtered and 2 volumes of ethanol were added to the filtrate. The resulting precipit...

The Effect Of The Galactan And Other Antigens Of Mycoplasma Mycoides Var. Mycoides On Experimental Infection With That Organism In Cattle

“…These experiments confirm the findings of Hudson et al (1967) that cattle treated with galactan from M . mycoides and given subcutaneous injections of a culture of M .…”

“…Galactan has been isolated from the cells of M. mycoides (Buttery and Plackett, 1960) and also from the culture medium supernatant after growth of the organism (Hudson, Buttery and Cottew, 1967).…”

Variable Surface Protein Vmm ofMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoidesSmall Colony Type

“…Hitherto, very little is known about the pathogenicity of M. mycoides SC. The polysaccharide capsule and oxidative damage from hydrogen peroxide production may play important roles in CBPP infection (18,49,58,64,69,75). Recently, it was suggested that the lipoprotein encoded by the lppB gene affects the virulence of M. mycoides SC (92).…”

Rapid Detection of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia by a Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides SC Capsular Polysaccharide-Specific Antigen Detection Latex Agglutination Test

“…capripneumoniae has previously been described (15) which was based upon detection of extracellular CPS as the sole or major antigen. Since MmmSC has been shown to produce large quantities of extracellular CPS (11,35), it seemed likely that the soluble antigen recognized by the anti-MmmSC IgG-coated beads was also CPS. First, MmmSC IgG-coated beads strongly agglutinated pure CPS in solution (see below).…”

“…MmmSC is known to produce large quantities of extracellular CPS (11) and, during the early or acute stages of infection, this antigen can "eclipse" the antibody response and lead to a false-negative diagnosis for CBPP with the CFT (35). In one study, up to 36% of CBPP-positive animals were undetected by the CFT (4).…”