Antigenic analysis of monoclonal antibodies against different epitopes of σB protein of avian reovirus

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 21KTPACW26 (epitope A) and 32WDTVTFH 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 21KTPACW26 and 32WDTVTFH38 as σB -specific epitopes recognized by mAbs 1F4 and 1H3-1, respectively. The results in this study may have potential applications in development of diagnostic techniques and epitope-based marker vaccines against ARV groups. © 2013 Yin et al.