The importance of OuterMembrane Protein A in SerumResistance in Aggregatibacteractinomycetemcomitans serotype astrain D7SS

The Gram-negative bacterium Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is primarily associatedwith aggressive forms of periodontal disease. Additionally, it has occasionally been found to causemetastatic infections in non-oral sites. This requires the ability to evade the bactericidal activity ofthe complement system of the humoral immune system. Outer membrane proteins, namely,Omp100 and OmpA have been connected to normal human serum resistance for several bacteriaspecies. The objective of this study was to investigate if serum-resistant ompA mutants can beobtained, and to detect changes in OMP expression. We used A. actinomycetemcomitansserotype a strain D7SS and D7SS ompA knockouts. The strains were incubated in 50 % NHS.This resulted in a substantial decrease of survival among D7SS ompA knockouts. D7SS ompAknockouts were exposed to 50 % NHS once more to confirm stable serum resistance. 13 out of14 tested clones showed growth, indicating that serum resistant ompA mutants could begenerated. SDS-PAGE gel of extracted outer membrane vesicles revealed an additional proteinband of approximately 34 kDa in at least 4 of 5 tested serum resistant ompA mutants. This proteinband has been analyzed in the laboratory, and according to LC-MS/MS it contains an OmpAhomologue, which has been named OmpA2. We conclude that OmpA2 expression might be amajor mechanism for serum survival in A. actinomycetemcomitans serotype a strain D7SS ompAknockouts