Expression of viral hemagglutinin on the surface of E. coli.

Expression of a foreign protein molecule on the E. coli bacterial surface has been achieved through hybrid plasmid construction of fusion proteins using outer membrane protein ompA as a carrier system. Influenza virus hemagglutinin fusion proteins of this character have been shown to become integrated into the bacterial outer membrane and to expose their hemagglutinin moiety at the exterior surface in a conformation which is at least similar to the authentic viral antigen structure.