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J Med Microbiol 56 (2007), 888-895; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.46977-0
© 2007 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

Novel protein targets of the humoral immune response to Listeria monocytogenes infection in rabbits

Wei Ling Yu1,2, Hanhong Dan1 and Min Lin1,2

1 Animal Diseases Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K2H 8P9, Canada

2 Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada

Correspondence
Min Lin
linm{at}inspection.gc.ca

Received 29 September 2006
Accepted 9 March 2007

The role of the humoral immune response in protective immunity against listerial infection has been overlooked and is essentially unknown. This study aimed to discover the protein targets of Listeria monocytogenes that elicit an antibody response following infection in a rabbit model. A genomic expression library for L. monocytogenes was constructed and differentially screened to identify genes encoding proteins that reacted with antiserum from rabbits infected with live L. monocytogenes serotype 4b (R{alpha}L), but not with that from animals immunized with heat-killed bacteria (R{alpha}K). Thirty-one clones expressing proteins that reacted exclusively with R{alpha}L were identified and sequenced. Sequence analysis, together with Western blot analysis of the proteins expressed from positive clones, led to the identification of eight L. monocytogenes proteins as targets of humoral immune responses during listerial infection: three internalin members (InlA, InlD and InlC2) and five novel proteins of unknown function (designated IspA, IspB, IspC, IspD and IspE, respectively). Exhibition of humoral immune responses to these proteins in actively infected rabbits but not in animals receiving heat-killed L. monocytogenes suggested that they were induced or significantly upregulated in vivo during infection and thus are important in Listeria pathogenesis. With the exception of antibodies to InlA, this is the first demonstration of antibodies to the other seven proteins in infected hosts. These immunogenic proteins may be useful candidates for elucidation of the role of antibodies in protective immunity in the context of listerial infection, as well as potential targets for serodiagnostic reagents and vaccine and drug development.

Abbreviations: AP, alkaline phosphatase; Isp, immunogenic surface protein.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences determined in this study are EF409978–EF409984.




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L. Wang and M. Lin
A novel cell wall-anchored peptidoglycan hydrolase (autolysin), IspC, essential for Listeria monocytogenes virulence: genetic and proteomic analysis
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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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