title: Subtractive immunization: a tool for the generation of discriminatory antibodies to proteins of similar sequence.
abstract: Antibodies specific for a protein of interest are invaluable tools for monitoring the protein's structure, location and activity. Due to the tendency of an immune system to mount a response toward the abundant, immunodominant epitopes in a protein mixture, difficulties are inherent in the isolation of antibodies specific for proteins that are rare or poorly immunogenic. Likewise, isolation of antibodies specific for a protein with significant sequence similarity to other proteins, such as those derived from protein engineering, may be challenging. Subtractive immunization is a technique proven to facilitate efforts to produce monoclonal antibodies specific for antigens that are present in low abundance in a protein mixture, poorly immunogenic and/or similar in sequence or structure to other proteins. This protocol provides a detailed, stepwise procedure for the isolation of antibodies specific for a protein with sequence similarity to other proteins. As an example, we describe methods established to isolate antibodies specific to a methionine-enriched variant of soybean vegetative storage protein beta (VSPbeta-Met) that shares 91.8% amino acid sequence identity to the wild-type protein (VSPbeta-WT). These methods include cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression of mice for the wild-type protein followed by immunization with VSPbeta-Met. As a result of this procedure, mouse polyclonal antibodies that exhibited 10-fold greater reactivity with VSPbeta-Met than VSPbeta-WT in an ELISA were generated. It is anticipated that this strategy will have utility for generating antibodies specific to protein variants derived from protein engineering.
authors.affiliation: Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., 7300 N.W. 62nd Avenue, Johnston, IA 50131-1004, USA.
authors.forename: Heidi Major
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Sleister
authors.forename: A Gururaj
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods*; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000235:genetics; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C078149:vspB protein, Glycine max; D003520:Cyclophosphamide