Stimulation and generation of T and B cell mediated long-term immune response is essential for the curbing of a deadly virus such as SAR-CoV-2. Immunoinformatics approach in vaccine design takes advantage of antigenic and non-allergenic epitopes present on the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 to elicit immune responses. T cells and B cells epitopes were predicted, and the selected residues were subjected to allergenicity, antigenicity and toxicity screening which were linked by appropriate linkers to form a multi-epitope subunit vaccine. The physiochemical properties of the vaccine construct was analyzed and the molecular weight, molecular formula, theoretical isoelectric point value, half-life, solubility score, instability index, aliphatic index and GRAVY were predicted. The vaccine structure was constructed, refined, validated, and disulfide engineered to get the best model. Molecular binding simulation and molecular dynamics simulation were carried out to predict the stability and binding affinity of the vaccine construct with TLRs. Codon acclimatization and
in silico
cloning were performed to confirm the vaccine expression and potency. Results obtained indicated that this novel vaccine candidate is non-toxic, capable of initiating the immunogenic response and will not induce an allergic reaction. The highest binding energy was observed in TLR 4 (-1398.1) and the least is TLR 2 (-1479. 6). The steady rise in Th (helper) cell population with memory development was noticed and IFN-g was provoked after simulation. At this point, the vaccine candidate awaits animal trial to validate its efficacy and safety for use in the prevention of the novel COVID-19 infections.
Genetic diversity in nineteen strains of Pleurotus was studied using morphometric traits and growth factors. Ability of the isolates of these strains to tolerate different ranges of temperature and pH were evaluated. Highest mycelial growth rates were obtained at 25 °C (mutants and hybrids) and 30 °C (wild type), while LAU 90 (mutant) performed satisfactorily at all evaluated temperature ranges (15-35 °C). Highest mycelial yields (dry weight) were produced by LAU 90 at different pH regimes (4.0 - 9.0), while hybrids LN 97 and LN 98 maximally produced mycelial yield at pH 5.0 and 7.0, respectively. Analysis od Principal component (PC) revealed that components of these strains accounted for 86.1% of total variations among the strains with first PC recording 44.6%. The dendrogram discriminated nineteen Pleurotus genotypes into two major genetic groups with mutants and hybrid strains in Cluster A, separated distinctly from wild parents in Cluster B, indicating genetic diversity. The expression of heterosis can be maximized by information obtained among the hybrid strains and mutant (LAU90) strain. The hybrid (LN98) strain with superior performance may be selected for adoption in commercial mushroom production.
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