VP7, an outer capsid protein of grass carp reovirus (GCRV), was expressed and displayed on the surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for developing an efficient vaccine against hemorrhagic disease of grass carp. The result of flow cytometry analysis indicated that protein VP7 could be displayed on the surface of yeast cells after inducing with galactose. The expression of VP7 was confirmed by western blot analysis and further visualized with confocal microscopy. The specific antibodies against VP7 generated from mice were detectable from all immune groups except the control group, which was immunized with untransformed yeast cells. The displaying VP7 on glycosylation-deficient strain EBYΔMnn9 was detected to induce a relatively low level of specific antibody amongst the three strains. However, the antiserum of EBYΔM9-VP7 showed relative high capacity to neutralize GCRV. Further neutralization testing assays indicated that the neutralizing ability of antiserum of the EBYΔM9-VP7 group appeared concentration dependent, and could be up to 66.7% when the antiserum was diluted to 1:50. This result indicates that appropriate gene modification of glycosylation in a yeast strain has essential effect on the immunogenicity of a yeast-based vaccine.
Keywords: Grass carp reovirus; Yeast surface display; protein VP7; yeast-based vaccine.