Studies on gonococcus infection. XIV. Cell wall protein differences among color/opacity colony variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Abstract

Gonococci from colonies exhibiting optical and dark coloration have surface proteins that are not visualized in isogenic transparent, light-colorated colony forms. These 'colony opacity-associated proteins' have apparent molecular weights varying from 24,000 to 30,000 by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate; their apparent molecular weights are independent of that for their major outer membrane protein. The opacity-associated proteins are more susceptible to hydrolysis by trypsin than is the major outer membrane protein, but gonococci processing the opacity-associated protein(s) also show enhanced susceptibility of their major outer membrane proteins to the action of trypsin. These conclusions were reached by comparing the electrophoretic patterns of whole-cell lysates from both 'laboratory-strains' and several recent clinical isolates of N. gonorrhoeae.