Biochemical and immunological comparison of lipopolysaccharides from Bordetella species

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) isolated from Bordetella pertussis, B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica were analysed for their chemical composition, molecular heterogeneity and immunological properties. All the LPS preparations contained heptose, 3-deoxy-D-manno-2-octulosonic acid, glucosamine, uronic acid, phosphate and fatty acids. The fatty acids C14:0, C16:0 and beta OHC14:0 were common to all the LPS preparations. LPS from B. pertussis strains additionally contained isoC16:0, those from B. parapertussis contained isoC14:0 and isoC16:0, and those from B. bronchiseptica contained C16:1. By SDS-PAGE, LPS from B. pertussis had two bands of low molecular mass, and the LPS from B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica showed low molecular mass bands together with a ladder arrangement of high molecular mass bands. Immunodiffusion, quantitative agglutination and ELISA demonstrated that the LPS from B. pertussis strains reacted with antisera prepared against whole cells of B. pertussis and B. bronchiseptica; LPS from B. parapertussis reacted with antisera to B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica, and LPS from B. bronchiseptica reacted with anti-whole cell serum raised against any of the three species. From these results, it is concluded that LPS from B. bronchiseptica has structures in common with LPS from B. pertussis and B. parapertussis, while the LPS from B. pertussis and B. parapertussis are serologically entirely different from each other.