L. C. Blankenship

Antigenic Differences in Congenic Chicken-Colonizing and Noncolonizing Strains of Campylobacter jejuni

A congenic pair ofCampylobacter jejuni has been previously developed in our laboratory that will (strain A74/C) and will not (strain A74/O) colonize 2-day-old chicks dosed with 105 colony forming units. Outer membrane protein (OMP) extracts of these organisms were prepared and studied by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot analyses. No consistent differences between the colonizer and noncolonizer were detected by SDS-PAGE. However, an antigen of 28 kD molecular weight was consistently found in the noncolonizer, but only at greatly reduced levels or not at all in the colonizer by Western blot analysis with rabbit anti-OMP serum. After affinity purification and cross absorption of serum against OMP from the colonizer, an antigen of 69 kD molecular weight was found unique to the colonizing strain. Exclusive association of the 69 kD antigen with the colonizing strain suggests that it may be a colonization factor.