Development of infection mechanism of culture-negative endocarditis

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Granulicatella adiacens is a member of the oral microbiota, formerly known as nutritionally variant streptococci, and is often isolated from endocarditis patients. In the present study we identified a surface protein, designated Cha, which binds to fibronectin, by a plaque hybridization procedure using the cshA sequence as probe, which encodes a fibronectin-binding molecule of Streptococcus gordonii DL1. The cha sequence was highly homologous to cshA and encoded a product of 2351 amino acid residues. The protein comprised a unique sequence in the N-terminal half region. The C-terminal region contained nine complete, and one incomplete, 115-amino acid residue repeat blocks. Among eight strains of nutritionally variant streptococci, three G. adiacens strains and one Abiotrophia defectiva strain carried the cha gene.