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Title: MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF 3 EPITOPES WITH DIFFERENT SPECIFICITY ON 38 KD PHOSPHORYLATED PROTEINS OF MAREK'S DISEASE VIRUSES

Author
item CUI, Z - DEPT PREVENT VET MED CHIN
item QIN, A - DEPT VET MED YANGZHOU UNI
item CUI, X-P - DEPT PREV VET MED SHANDON
item DU, Y - YANGZHOU UNIV, CHINA
item Lee, Lucy

Submitted to: World Poultry Congress Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/20/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The 38 kd phosphorylated proteins (pp38) of serotype I Marek's disease viruses (MDV) have been sequenced and showed almost the same polypeptide sequences except 1-2 amino acid changes at positions #107 and #109. In this study, three epitopes with different specificity on pp38 were identified using monoclonal antibodies and monospecific serum in florescent antibody test. The first epitope is glycine at amino acid (aa) #109 by Mab T65 which only reacted with CV1988 and virulent strain GA but not with other virulent strains. The second epitope is glutamine at aa #107 by Mab H19 which reacted with all virulent MDVs but not vaccine CV1988. The third epitope is arginine at aa #107 which is only present in CV1988/Rispen. Interesting, for CV1988, the aa arginine instead of glutamine at aa #107 makes it negative to Mab H19. In addition, the monospecific mouse serum against CV1988-pp38 expressed in E-coli was significantly more reactive with CV1988 than with other virulent strains. Experiments in chickens with the point mutants of CV1988 demonstrated that the third epitope (arginine) was more immunogenic. The possible biological activity of the domain related to the epitopes on pp38 will be discussed.