Production and characterization of chimeric transferrins for the determination of the binding domains for bacterial transferrin receptors

Pathogenic bacteria in the Neisseriaceae and Pasteurellaceae possess outer membrane proteins that specifically bind transferrin from the host as the first step in the iron acquisition process. As a logical progression from prior studies of the ligand-receptor interaction using biochemical approaches, we have initiated an approach involving the production of recombinant chimeric transferrins to further identify the regions of transferrin involved in receptor binding. In order to prepare bovine/human hybrids, the bovine transferrin gene was cloned, sequenced, and compared with the existing human transferrin gene sequence. After identification of potential splice sites, hybrid transferrin genes were constructed using the polymerase chain reaction-based approach of splicing by overlap extension. Five hybrid genes containing sequences from both bovine and human transferrin were constructed. Recombinant transferrins were produced in a baculovirus expression vector system and affinity-purified using concanavalin A-Sepharose. The recombinant proteins were analyzed for reactivity against polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies and assessed for binding to Neisseria meningitidis transferrin receptor proteins in solid-phase binding assays and affinity isolation experiments. These experiments enabled us to localize the regions of human transferrin predominantly involved in binding to the N. meningitidis receptor to amino acid residues 346-588. The construction of these chimeras provides unique tools for the investigation of transferrin binding to receptors from both human and bovine bacterial pathogens.