P48 Major Surface Antigen of Mycoplasma agalactiae Is Homologous to a malp Product of Mycoplasma fermentans and Belongs to a Selected Family of Bacterial Lipoproteins

A major surface antigenic lipoprotein of Mycoplasma agalactiae, promptly recognized by the host's immune system, was characterized. The mature product, P48, showed significant similarity and shared conserved amino acid motifs with lipoproteins or predicted lipoproteins from Mycoplasma fermentans, Mycoplasma hyorhinis, relapsing fever Borrelia spp., Bacillus subtilis, and Treponema pallidum.