Outer membrane proteome and antigens of Tannerella forsythia

Tannerella forsythia is a Gram-negative, anaerobic, fusiform bacterium implicated as a periodontal pathogen. With use of 2D PAGE, SDS PAGE, and LC-MALDI-TOF/TOF MS, 221 proteins of T. forsythia outer membrane preparations were identified, of which 197 were predicted to be localized to the cell envelope. Fifty-six proteins were reproducibly mapped by 2D PAGE and included several highly abundant proteins in the MW range 140-250 kDa that exhibited C-terminal sequence similarity to the CTD family of Porphyromonas gingivalis. Two-dimensional Western blot analyses revealed that these CTD family proteins together with several other outer membrane proteins were antigenic. The CTD family proteins exhibited a higher than expected MW, and were strongly reactive with the fluorescent glycoprotein stain, ProQ Emerald. This group included BspA and surface layer proteins A and B. TonB-dependent receptors (TDRs) (46) were identified together with 28 putative lipoproteins whose genes are immediately downstream of a TDR gene. The major OmpA-like protein was found to be TF1331. Uniquely, it was found to exist as a homodimer held together by up to three disulfide bridges as demonstrated by MS/MS of a tryptic peptide derived from unreduced TF1331.