Genomic investigation of phenotypic variation in Campylobacter jejuni flagellin

Western blots of whole-cell sonicates of 10 different clones of a faecal isolate of Campylobacter jejuni 533 detected the expression of flagella antigens of either 59 or 62 kDa. Other antigenic proteins appeared identical both in the parent and all the clones. The mechanism for this phenotypic variation was studied using Southern blotting with a flagellin-specific gene probe and products of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using flagellin-gene primers. Restriction-enzyme digestion and Southern blotting did not detect any genomic rearrangements in the flagellin genes of the different phenotypes nor did restriction-enzyme analysis of the PCR products.