Nucleotide sequence of the Salmonella typhi groEL heat shock gene.

Heat shock proteins (HSP) have been shown to elicit a strong immune response during infection by a variety of pathogens. The HSP60 gene of Salmonella typhi was amplified using oligonucleotide primers based on the Escherichia coli groEL sequence. The nucleotide sequence of the amplified fragment was determined and used to predict the amino acid sequence of S. typhi GroEL. The E. coli and S. typhi proteins were found to be highly similar; however, several non-conservative substitutions near the carboxy-termini of the two polypeptides were found. Knowing the amino acid sequence of the S. typhi HSP60 homologue will enhance our knowledge of host immune recognition of HSP produced by bacterial pathogens.