Haemophilus paragallinarum haemagglutinin : role in adhesion, serotyping and pathogenicity

Abstract

It is suggested that Haemophilus paragallinarum requires at least three haemagglutinins for adhesionduring infection. This paper reports the partial purification and characterization of the HA-L haemagglutininfrom H. paragallinarum strain 46-C3, a heat sensitive, trypsin sensitive haemagglutinin that hasbeen shown to be the serovar specific haemagglutinin in this organism. Using the pI and molecularmass obtained, it was shown that this protein shares similarities with other types of adhesins found in Gram-negative bacteria. The haemagglutination assay conditions were optimized at pH 7.5 at 37 °C. It was also shown that activity is enhanced by the addition of Ca²⁺ and Mn²⁺ ions.