Mycoplasma pneumoniae gene, p30 code for adhesin protein which associated with the attachment organelle of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, yet, its deep function is not clear.
Needed for cytadherence (will attach Mycoplasma to epithelium) and it is virulence which will cause disease.
P30 is a 29.7-kDa polypeptide, positively charged amino terminus and is followed by a hydrophobic domain of 23 residues which may act as a signal peptide.
A second hydrophobic domain follows 40 residues after the first.
However, P30 is predicted as highly hydrophilic.
The C-terminal domain of P30 shows important sequence homology with the C terminus of the adhesin P1.
P30 exhibits immunological cross-reactivity with fibrinogen, keratin, and myosin, which might used for autoimmune affect associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections.
Inability to cytadhere happened due to a complete loss of P30 (mutant II-3) or a 144-bp deletion near the 3′ hydroxyl end of the p30 gene (mutant II-7).
Monoclonal antibody is used directly to against the extracellular domain of P30 which block its adherence, but this may reflect stearic interference with adjacent molecules on the Mycoplasma surface.
