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Infection and Immunity, January 2002, p. 171-176, Vol. 70, No. 1
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.1.171-176.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Mapping Antigenic Sites of an Immunodominant Surface Lipoprotein of Mycoplasma agalactiae, AvgC, with the Use of Synthetic Peptides

Antonella Santona,1* Franco Carta,1 Peppinetta Fraghí,1 and Franco Turrini2

Porto Conte Ricerche, 07041 Alghero (SS),1 Dipartimento di Genetica, Sezione di Biochimica, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy2

Received 8 August 2001/ Returned for modification 6 September 2001/ Accepted 11 October 2001

As a first step toward the design of an epitope vaccine to prevent contagious agalactia, the strongly immunogenic 55-kDa protein of Mycoplasma agalactiae was studied and found to correspond to the AvgC protein encoded by the avgC gene. The avg genes of M. agalactiae, which encode four variable surface lipoproteins, display a significant homology to the vsp (variable membrane surface lipoproteins) genes of the bovine pathogen Mycoplasma bovis at their promoter region as well as their N-terminus-encoding regions. Some members of the Vsp family are known to be involved in cytoadhesion to host cells. In order to localize immunogenic peptides in the AvgC antigen, the protein sequence was submitted to epitope prediction analysis, and five sets of overlapping peptides, corresponding to five selected regions, were synthesized by Spot synthesis. Reactive peptides were selected by immunobinding assay with sera from infected sheep. The three most immunogenic epitopes were shown to be surface exposed by immunoprecipitation assays, and one of these was specifically recognized by all tested sera. Our study indicates that selected epitopes of the AvgC lipoprotein may be used to develop a peptide-based vaccine which is effective against M. agalactiae infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Porto Conte Ricerche Soc. Cons. a.r.l., S.P. 55 Porto Conte-Capo Caccia-Km. 8.400, Loc. Tramariglio, C.P. 07040 Santa Maria La Palma, 07041 Alghero (SS), Italy. Phone: 39-079-998570. Fax: 39-079-998567. E-mail: pcrricerca.d{at}tiscalinet.it.

Editor: D. L. Burns

Infection and Immunity, January 2002, p. 171-176, Vol. 70, No. 1
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.1.171-176.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Fusco, M., Corona, L., Onni, T., Marras, E., Longheu, C., Idini, G., Tola, S. (2007). Development of a Sensitive and Specific Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Based on Recombinant Antigens for Rapid Detection of Antibodies against Mycoplasma agalactiae in Sheep. CVI 14: 420-425 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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