The ClpE protein involved in biogenesis of the CS31A capsule-like antigen is a member of a periplasmic chaperone family in gram-negative bacteria.

The putative chaperone-like protein ClpE, required for biogenesis of the Escherichia coli capsule-like antigen CS31A, was compared with ten known periplasmic chaperones from E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bordetella pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae and Yersinia pestis. The amino acid sequence alignment was superimposed onto the three-dimensional structure of the PapD chaperone of uropathogenic E. coli, and amino acid residues involved in maintaining the structure integrity of the suggested binding site were found identical in most of the 11 chaperones. Construction of a phylogenetic tree to investigate the relationship within the chaperone family has revealed interesting degrees of relatedness between the different proteins.