Antigenic Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies against Different Epitopes of σB Protein of Avian Reovirus.docVIP

Antigenic Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies against Different Epitopes of σB Protein of Avian Reovirus Chun-hong Yin, Li-ting Qin, Mei-yu Sun, Yu-long Gao, Xiao-le Qi, Hong-lei Gao, Yong-qiang Wang, Xiao- mei Wang * Division of Avian Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, P. R. China Abstract Background: Avian reovirus (ARV) causes arthritis, tenosynovitis, runting-stunting syndrome (RSS), malabsorption syndrome (MAS) and immunosuppression in chickens. σB is one of the major structural proteins of ARV, which is able to induce group-specific antibodies against the virus. Methods and Results: The present study described the identification of two linear B-cell epitopes in ARV σB through expressing a set of partially overlapping and consecutive truncated peptides spanning σB screened with two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) 1F4 and 1H3-1.The data indicated that KTPACW (epitope A) and WDTVTFH 21 26 32 38 (epitope B) were minimal determinants of the linear B cell epitopes. Antibodies present in the serum of ARV-positive chickens recognized the minimal linear epitopes in Western blot analyses. By sequence alignment analysis, we determined that the epitopes A and B were not conserved among ARV, duck reovirus (DRV) and turkey reovirus (TRV) strains. Western blot assays, confirmed that epitopes A and B were ARV-specific epitopes, and they could not react with the corresponding peptides of DRV and TRV. Conclusions and Significance: We identified KTPACW and WDTVTFH as σB -specific epitopes recognized 21 26 32 38 by mAbs 1F4 and 1H3-1, respectively. The results in this study may have potential applications in development of diagnost