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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2005, p. 7977-7984, Vol. 187, No. 23
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.23.7977-7984.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification and Characterization of a Novel Outer Membrane Protein (OMP J) of Moraxella catarrhalis That Exists in Two Major Forms

Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus MC, Dr. Molewaterplein 40, P.O. Box 2040, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands,¹ Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Dr. Molewaterplein 50, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands,² Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, E3-Q-3, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands,³ Department of Molecular Microbiology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands,⁴ Laboratory of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101 (internal post 224), 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands⁵

Received 29 April 2005/ Accepted 7 September 2005

Moraxella catarrhalis is a common commensal of the human respiratory tract that has been associated with a number of disease states, including acute otitis media in children and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults. During studies to investigate the outer membrane proteins of this bacterium, two novel major proteins, of approximately 19 kDa and 16 kDa (named OMP J1 and OMP J2, respectively), were identified. Further analysis indicated that these two proteins possessed almost identical gene sequences, apart from two insertion/deletion events in predicted external loops present within the putative barrel-like structure of the proteins. The development of a PCR screening strategy found a 100% (96/96) incidence for the genes encoding the OMP J1 and OMP J2 proteins within a set of geographically diverse M. catarrhalis isolates, as well as a significant association of OMP J1/OMP J2 with both the genetic lineage and the complement resistance phenotype (Fisher's exact test; P < 0.01). Experiments using two ompJ2 mutants (one complement resistant and the other complement sensitive) indicated that both were less easily cleared from the lungs of mice than were their isogenic wild-type counterparts, with a significant difference in bacterial clearance being observed for the complement-resistant isolate but not for its isogenic ompJ2 mutant (unpaired Student's t test; P < 0.001 and P = 0.32). In this publication, we characterize a novel outer membrane protein of Moraxella catarrhalis which exists in two variant forms associated with particular genetic lineages, and both forms are suggested to contribute to bacterial clearance from the lungs.

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