Identification of F Strain Mycoplasma gallisepticum Isolates by Detection of an Immunoreactive Protein

Abstract

Commercial laying hens were examined microbiologically at necropsy 31 or 42 weeks after aerosol vaccination with the F strain of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG). Mycoplasma isolates were studied in Western blots probed with polyclonal antiserum raised in rabbits to F strain immunogen. The persistence of the vaccine strain was demonstrated by detection of a 75-kilodalton immunoreactive protein, which was present in all MG isolates and thought to be a unique marker of the F strain. Use of PCA-F to probe Western blots allowed simultaneous identification of non-MG isolates, non-F strains of MG, and the F strain of MG.

Comparative Genomic Analyses of Attenuated Strains of Mycoplasma gallisepticum

“…One intact F strain vlhA ORF (MGF_4735; predicted 75-kDa protein) was notably divergent from VlhA ORFs in the R strain (59% amino acid identity to VlhA4.11) yet more similar (73%) to the strain S6 ORF pMGA 1.4 (43). A 75-kDa immunodominant protein specific to the F strain has been previously described (30,69); however, whether MGF_4735 encodes this protein remains to be shown. The nonsyntenic nature of many interstrain VlhA best-matches and the presence of a large genomic inversion, gene duplication, and indels suggested recombination in and around vlhA loci (Fig.…”

Phenotypic and antigenic variation of Mycoplasma Gallisepticum vaccine strains

“…A MG marker to distinguish vaccine from wild type-strains would be useful as diagnostic tool. MG-F strain has a unique molecular band, a 75 kDa protein, which can be used as a marker to differentiate it from the other MG strains by immunoblot (18).…”