Cloning of Mycoplasma pneumoniae DNA and expression of P1-epitopes in Escherichia coli.

A genomic library of Mycoplasma pneumoniae was constructed by cloning partial Sau3A-digested genomic DNA into the expression plasmids pEX1 to pEX3. The recombinant clones were screened for production of M. pneumoniae P1-antigen by an in situ colony enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) blot method with a monospecific rabbit antiserum raised against the surface protein P1. The length of the translated P1-sequence and the size of the inserted DNA were determined. By comparison it was shown that six clones contained DNA fragments coding for an internal part of the P1-protein and eight clones code for the C-terminal part of terminated P1-protein. In reactions against sera from patients suffering from M. pneumoniae infection and sera from healthy persons, one of the internal clones and five of the C-terminal clones reacted with one or two of the patient sera, but only one clone reacted with all patient sera.