Novel genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity in Bordetella bronchiseptica pertactin

The Bordetella bronchiseptica outer membrane protein pertactin is believed to function as an adhesin and is an important protective immunogen. Previous sequence analysis of the pertactin gene identified two regions predicted to encode amino acid repeat motifs. Recent studies have documented DNA sequence heterogeneity in both regions. The present study describes additional variants in these regions, which form the basis for six novel pertactin types. Immunoblotting demonstrated phenotypic heterogeneity in pertactin consistent with the predicted combined sizes of the repeat regions. A revised system for classifying B. bronchiseptica pertactin variants is proposed.