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Immunological response mounted by Aboriginal Australians living in the Northern Territory of Australia against Streptococcus pyogenes serum opacity factor
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Immunological response mounted by Aboriginal Australians living in the Northern Territory of Australia against Streptococcus pyogenes serum opacity factor

C M Gillen, R J Towers, David J McMillan, A Delvecchio, K S Sriprakash, B Currie, B Kreikemeyer, G S Chhatwal and M J Walker
Microbiology, Vol.148(1), pp.169-178
2002
url
https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-148-1-169View
Published Version

Abstract

Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A streptococcus) interacts with host fibronectin via a number of distinct surface components. The streptococcal serum opacity factor (SOF) is a cell-surface protein of S. pyogenes which causes opalescence of human serum and mediates bacterial binding to fibronectin. In this study, hexahistidyl-tagged fusion proteins encompassing full-length SOF, and domains of SOF encompassing opacity factor activity and fibronectin-binding regions, were used in the characterization of the Aboriginal immune response to SOF. Anti-SOF serum IgG responses were found to be significantly higher (P less than 00001) in Aboriginal adults and children when compared to a non-Aboriginal adult group. The Aboriginal immune response against the fibronectin-binding region of SOF was significantly reduced when compared to the response against the whole SOF protein and N-terminal domains examined in this study (P less than 0001). This pattern of immune response was also observed in rabbits immunized with recombinant SOF. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of SOF from a number of common Australian isolates with other SOF sequences revealed that the N-terminus of SOF exhibits sequence similarity values ranging from 429% to 965%. The C-terminus containing the fibronectin-binding domain and membrane-spanning regions was more highly conserved, exhibiting sequence similarity values ranging from 846% to 100% within the fibronectin-binding repeats. These data suggest that the immune response against SOF is directed toward the variable N-terminus of the SOF protein. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the sof genes of S. pyogenes do not exhibit geographical variation.

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