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PubMedDate not supplied

The reactivity of anti-peptide antibodies is a function of the atomic mobility of sites in a protein.

To study the nature of antigenic recognition, antibodies have been prepared against a set of peptide sequences representing both highly mobile and well-ordered regions of myohaemerythrin, based on X-ray crystallographic temperature factors. Anti-peptide antibodies against highly mobile regions react strongly with the native protein; anti-peptide antibodies from well-ordered regions do not. Mobility is a major factor in the recognition of the native protein by anti-peptide antibodies; this may be of general significance in protein-protein interactions.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Understanding the structure and antigenicity of gonococcal pili.

Pili--filamentous protein structures found on the cell surface of many infectious gram-negative bacteria--often are virulence factors that mediate adherence to host epithelial cells. The pilus, a major surface antigen of the gonococcus, is formed by the specific association of thousands of repeating identical protein subunits (pilin). Structural studies of the pilin protein and the pilus fiber may aid the rational design of a peptide-based vaccine by providing information on the antigenic surface of pili that includes the identification of sequence-distant antigenic regions that are localized to single areas of the three-dimensional structure. Preliminary results suggest that the pilin subunit has structural similarity to the 4-alpha-helix bundle fold in proteins such as the coat protein subunit of tobacco mosaic virus and myohemerythrin. Therefore, the monomeric protein myohemeythrin was used to identify structural correlations for antigenic determinants on 4-alpha-helix bundle proteins such as pilin.

Antigens, Bacterial↗