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Correlation of the Polysaccharide Antigens of Francisella tularensis with Virulence in Experimental Mice
Author(s) -
Fujita Hiromi,
Sato Tadashi,
Watanabe Yuriko,
Ohara Yoshiro,
Homma Morio
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.1995.tb03291.x
Subject(s) - francisella tularensis , virulence , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , antigen , polysaccharide , agglutination (biology) , acriflavine , agar , bacteria , immunology , gene , biochemistry , genetics
Francisella tularensis gives rise to two distinct colony types, acriflavine agglutination test‐positive (acf + ) and ‐negative (acf − ) colonies. The acf + variants were exclusively low virulent in mice, while the acf − variants were shown to be either high or low virulent. Three fractions, phosphate‐buffered saline‐extractable without heating, with heating at 60 C, and with heating at 100 C, were obtained from cultures of both the acf + and acf − variants on agar media, and the polysaccharide antigens in those fractions were quantitated. All of the highly virulent acf − variants possessed a large amount of the polysaccharide antigen in the fraction extractable with heating at 60 C. This antigen was not, however, detected in any of the acf + variants and one low‐virulent acf − variant. It was also detected in a very low amount in some other acf − variants with low virulence. The amount of this polysaccharide antigen was therefore shown to be correlated with bacterial virulence in mice.