Basic Info

Serotype prediction based on their surface antigens, such as O, H, and K antigens.

More Details

The serotype represents the genetic markers displayed by proteins in blood plasma. Due to the genetic polymorphism of some serum proteins, phenotypic differences arise among individuals. Therefore, serotyping has become an important classification method, especially for many foodborne microorganisms such as Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. This method is also widely used in epidemiological investigations. By determining the serotype of bacteria, we can provide a solid basis for antimicrobial therapy. Specifically, through in-depth analysis of the characteristics of bacterial somatic cells, such as the O antigen, cell surface proteins, H antigen, and K antigen, we can accurately classify bacteria based on their serotypes.

What's New

Cell-surface carbohydrates are crucial for the viability and pathogenicity of bacteria such as Klebsiella Pneumoniae (KP). Different capsular polysaccharides (CPS), K-antigens and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-antigens form the bacterial capsule and are used to distinguish more than 80 KP serotypes. LPS, mainly involved in resistance to complement bactericidal activity, consists of lipid A, a core oligosaccharide and an O-antigenic polysaccharide (O-PS). The O-PS plays a key role in host-pathogen interactions. Most clinical isolates carry O-antigens that are composed of either galactose (O1 and O2 antigens) or mannose (O3 and O5 antigens).

Kaptive is a system for surface polysaccharide typing from KP genome sequences.

Additional Information

Related links:

https://github.com/klebgenomics/Kaptive

Literature

Trautmann M, Ruhnke M, Rukavina T, et al. O-antigen seroepidemiology of Klebsiella clinical isolates and implications for immunoprophylaxis of Klebsiella infections. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 1997;4(5):550-555. doi:10.1128/cdli.4.5.550-555.1997

Pan YJ, Lin TL, Chen CT, et al. Genetic analysis of capsular polysaccharide synthesis gene clusters in 79 capsular types of Klebsiella spp. Sci Rep. 2015;5:15573. Published 2015 Oct 23. doi:10.1038/srep15573

Follador R, Heinz E, Wyres KL, et al. The diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae surface polysaccharides. Microb Genom. 2016;2(8):e000073. Published 2016 Aug 25. doi:10.1099/mgen.0.000073

Lam MMC, Wick RR, Judd LM, Holt KE, Wyres KL. Kaptive 2.0: updated capsule and lipopolysaccharide locus typing for the Klebsiella pneumoniae species complex. Microb Genom. 2022;8(3):000800. doi:10.1099/mgen.0.000800

Wyres KL, Wick RR, Gorrie C, et al. Identification of Klebsiella capsule synthesis loci from whole genome data. Microb Genom. 2016;2(12):e000102. Published 2016 Dec 12. doi:10.1099/mgen.0.000102