A 40-kilodalton cell wall protein-coding sequence upstream of the sr gene of Streptococcus mutans OMZ175 (serotype f)

Streptococcus mutans surface proteins may be important in immunization against dental caries. We report the existence of an open reading frame of 1,005 bp that lies 1,162 bases upstream of the S. mutans OMZ175 sr gene and that encodes a cell wall-associated protein. This open reading frame codes for 335 amino acid residues. The first 18-amino acid region is predominantly hydrophobic and resembles a signal peptide, and the hydrophobic C-terminal region may function as an anchor to the bacterial cell wall. On the basis of the predicted antigenic determinants of the deduced amino acid sequence, a 16-residue synthetic peptide corresponding to the middle hydrophilic coiled region was synthesized. Antibodies raised against this synthetic peptide reacted with a protein with an apparent Mr of 40,000 that was identified by Western immunoblotting in a cell wall extract from S. mutans OMZ175. The high reactivity in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of the antibodies with whole S. mutans OMZ175 cells showed that this protein was located on the bacterial cell surface. Furthermore, the antipeptide immunoglobulin G recognized an identical determinant on the cell surface of other members of the S. mutans group. However, the function of this protein is not yet known.