Antigen sharing of Salmonella typhi non-flagellar proteins with other salmonellae and some shigellae and Escherichia coli

Abstract

Cathodal moving protein components were identified in agarose gel electrophoresis of the Veronal buffer extract of a non-motile strain of S. typhi (8393, Colindale). Rabbit antiserum was raised against these cationic proteins; it had both agglutinating and precipitating activity. A total of 80 salmonella strains belonging to serogroups A, B, C1, C2, D, E1 and E2 including 26 S. typhi and 10 S. paratyphi A were tested against this antiserum in a slide agglutination test; all strains were agglutinated. Among 94 other bacterial strains tested, the antiserum agglutinated all 16 strains of Shigella flexneri, 2 of 5 Shigella sonnei, 5 of 34 E. coli and 1 of 8 Citrobacter species. These results show that there is antigenic sharing of the non-flagellar proteins of S. typhi with many other salmonellae as well as with some shigellae and E. coli.