Cloning, identification, and bioinformatics analysis of a putative aquaporin TsAQP from Trichinella spiralis.
Vaccination as a preventative strategy against Trichinella spiralis infection is an ongoing effort, although no ideal vaccine candidates have been identified until now. Identification of more effective antigens that have a role in essential life stages of the parasite and that may be effective vaccine candidates is therefore of importance. In the present study, we identified a novel aquaporin gene (TsAQP) from T. spiralis, and the potential antigenicity of TsAQP was evaluated by epitope prediction. A total of 11 post-translational modification sites were predicted in the protein and fell into 4 categories: N-glycosylation; casein kinase II phosphorylation; protein kinase C phosphorylation; and N-myristoylation sites. TsAQP is a membrane intrinsic protein with high hydrophobicity; the main hydrophobic domains comprised up to 38.5% of the protein and were distributed at amino acid positions 21-43, 54-71, 83-91, 107-121, 163-174, 187-200, and 242-261. The protein consisted mainly of helices (39.58%) and loops (50%). The advanced structure of TsAQP was predicted using homology modeling, which showed that the protein was formed from 6 membrane-spanning domains connected by 5 loops. Based on these analyses, 6 potential B-cell epitopes and 4 potential T-cell epitopes were further predicted. These results suggest that TsAQP could be a promising antigen candidate for vaccination against T. spiralis.
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.
J M
JM
Cui
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.
N Z
NZ
Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.
W H
WH
Li
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.
H B
HB
Yan
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.
B Q
BQ
Fu
D000818:Animals; D020346:Aquaporins / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D017160:Trichinella spiralis / Q000235:genetics*
D020346:Aquaporins