Characterization of elongation factor Tu of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae
Xuan Zhang, Yue-feng Chu, Ping Zhao, Peng-cheng
Gao, Ying He, Nu Wang and Zhong-xin Lu*
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological
Biology, Key Laboratory of Epizootic Diseases of Grazing Animal of
Ministry of Agriculture, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute,
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China *Corresponding author:luzhongxin@hotmail.com
Abstract
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is
considered as an important pathogen of small ruminants, but its antigenic
proteins are not well known so far. In this study, we cloned the EF-Tu gene of
M. ovipneumoniae and analyzed the
molecular features of the gene and its coding protein for the first time.
The gene was then expressed in E.coli
and the antigenicity of the coding protein was evaluated as well. The EF-Tu gene
of M. ovipneumoniae is 1209 bp in length, encodes 402 amino acids, and
shares the highest DNA sequence identity of 87.5% and deduced amino acid
sequence identity of 97.8% with those of
M. hyopneumoniae, respectively. The recombinant EF-Tu protein can react with
the polyclonal antiserum of M.
ovipneumoniae and can induce humoral immune responses in mice, which
indicated that the EF-Tu may be used as a candidate protein in developing the
technologies to control the disease.