Specificity of the lactoferrin and transferrin receptors in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Lactoferrin (LF) and transferrin (TF) are postulated to be important physiological sources of iron for Neisseria gonorrhoeae. A dot binding assay involving the use of gonococcal total membranes derived from cells grown in iron-limited conditions demonstrated the presence of separate receptors for LF and TF. The ligand and functional specificities of these receptors were examined in competition-binding and growth experiments. The results indicate that the LF and TF receptors are highly specific for the human protein, suggesting that this property may be partially responsible for conferring the human host specificity of N. gonorrhoeae.