Identification of a Type-Specific Epitope in the ORF2 Protein of Duck Astrovirus Type 1

Jingjing Lan; Ruihua Zhang; Pengfei Li; Junhao Chen; Zhijing Xie; Shijin Jiang

doi:10.3390/ani9121069

Identification of a Type-Specific Epitope in the ORF2 Protein of Duck Astrovirus Type 1

Animals (Basel). 2019 Dec 2;9(12):1069. doi: 10.3390/ani9121069.

Authors

Jingjing Lan^{1

2}, Ruihua Zhang^{1

2}, Pengfei Li¹, Junhao Chen^{1

3}, Zhijing Xie^{1

2}, Shijin Jiang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271000, China.
² Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Taian 271000, China.
³ College of Public Health and Management, Weifang Medical University, Weifang 261042, China.

Abstract

Duck astrovirus type 1 (DAstV-1) infection constitutes a cause of viral hepatitis in ducklings and little is known about the B-cell epitope of DAstV-1. In this study, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) 3D2 against open reading frame 2 (ORF2) protein of DAstV-1 was used to identify the possible epitope in the four serotypes of DAstV. The mAb 3D2 showed no neutralization activity to DAstV-1, and reacted with the conserved linear B-cell epitopes of ⁴⁵⁴STTESA⁴⁵⁹ in DAstV-1 ORF2 protein. Sequence analysis, dot blot assay, and cross-reactivity test indicated that the epitope peptide was highly conserved in DAstV-1 sequence and mAb 3D2 had no cross-reactivity with other DAstV serotypes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about identification of the specific conserved linear B-cell epitope of DAstV-1, which will facilitate the serologic diagnosis of DAstV-1 infection.

Keywords: B-cell epitope; DAstV-1; ORF2 protein; mAb.

Abstract

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