Glycotyping and specific separation of Listeria monocytogenes with a novel bacteriophage protein toolkit.

Glycotyping and specific separation of Listeria monocytogenes with a novel bacteriophage protein toolkit. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2020 May 01;: Authors: Sumrall ET, Röhrig C, Hupfeld M, Selvakumar L, Du J, Dunne M, Schmelcher M, Shen Y, Loessner MJ Abstract The Gram-positive pathogen Listeria monocytogenes can be subdivided into at least 12 different serovars, based on differential expression of a set of somatic and flagellar antigens. Of note, strains belonging to serovars 1/2a, 1/2b and 4b cause the vast majority of foodborne listeriosis cases and outbreaks. The standard protocol for serovar determination involves an agglutination method using a set of sera containing cell surface-recognizing antibodies. However, this procedure is imperfect in both precision and practicality, due to discrepancies resulting from subjective interpretation. Further, the exact antigenic epitopes remain unclear, due to the preparation of the absorbed sera and the complex nature of polyvalent antibody binding. Here, we present a novel method for quantitative somatic antigen differentiation using a set of recombinant affinity proteins (cell-wall-binding domains and receptor-binding proteins) derived from a collection of Listeria bacteriophages. These proteins enable rapid, objective and precise identification of the different teichoic acid glycopolymer structures, which represent the O-antigens, and allow a near-complete differentiation. This glycotyping...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research