Identification of novel immunogens in Pasteurella multocida.
P. multocida is a Gram-negative pathogen responsible for causing diseases in animals of economic significance to livestock industries throughout the world. Current vaccines include bacterins, which provide only limited protection against homologous serotypes. Therefore there is a need for more effective vaccines to control diseases caused by P. multocida. As a step towards developing vaccines against fowl cholera, a genomics based approach was applied for the identification of novel immunogens.


RESULTS
Bioinformatics analysis of the P. multocida genome predicted 129 proteins as secreted, located in the outer membrane, or lipoproteins. 105 of the genes encoding these proteins were cloned and recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli. Polyclonal serum from P. multocida-infected chickens reacted with a subset of these proteins.


CONCLUSIONS
These data show the range of bacterial immunogens recognized by the chicken immune system, including 6 novel immunoreactive proteins.
Al-Hasani
Keith
K
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia. keith.Al-hasani@med.monash.edu.au
Boyce
John
J
McCarl
Victoria P
VP
Bottomley
Stephen
S
Wilkie
Ian
I
Adler
Ben
B