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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 1998, p. 766-772, Vol. 5, No. 6
1071-412X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Use of the Cell Division Protein FtsZ as a Means of Differentiating among Bartonella Species

Timothy M. Kelly,1 Indira Padmalayam,2 and Barbara R. Baumstark1,*

Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30302,1 and Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 303332

Received 14 May 1998/Returned for modification 25 June 1998/Accepted 27 July 1998

Genes coding for homologs of the highly conserved cell division protein FtsZ were isolated from Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana, the causative agents of cat scratch disease and trench fever, respectively. DNA fragments coding for the ftsZ open reading frames (ORFs) were cloned into Escherichia coli following PCR amplification with primers based on the ftsZ sequence of the closely related species Bartonella bacilliformis. The amino acid sequences predicted from the cloned B. henselae and B. quintana ftsZ ORFs are 81 to 83% identical to the corresponding protein in B. bacilliformis. Like the FtsZ protein of B. bacilliformis, the B. henselae and B. quintana homologs are about twice as large as the FtsZ proteins reported in most other organisms. Localized sequence differences within the C-terminal coding regions of the Bartonella ftsZ genes were used as the basis for species-specific identification of these organisms at both the DNA and protein levels. Oligonucleotide primers which permit the amplification of an ftsZ fragment from each of the Bartonella species without amplifying DNA from the other two species were designed. Anti-FtsZ antisera raised in rabbits against synthetic peptides corresponding to the relatively divergent C-terminal regions were shown via Western blot analysis to react only with the FtsZ protein from the cognate Bartonella species. These observations raise the possibility that the differences in ftsZ sequences can be used as the basis for diagnostic tests to differentiate among these closely related pathogens.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 4010, Atlanta, GA 30302-4010. Phone: (404) 651-3156. Fax: (404) 651-2509. E-mail: biobrb{at}panther.gsu.edu.

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 1998, p. 766-772, Vol. 5, No. 6
1071-412X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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