Research

Identification of novel immunogens in Pasteurella multocida

Keith Al-Hasani¹ , John Boyce¹ , Victoria P McCarl¹ , Stephen Bottomley¹ , Ian Wilkie² and Ben Adler¹

¹  Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

²  School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia

author email corresponding author email

Microbial Cell Factories 2007, 6:3doi:10.1186/1475-2859-6-3

Published:	18 January 2007

Abstract

P. multocida is a Gram-negative pathogen responsible for causing diseases in animals of economic significance to livestock industries throughout the world. Current vaccines include bacterins, which provide only limited protection against homologous serotypes. Therefore there is a need for more effective vaccines to control diseases caused by P. multocida. As a step towards developing vaccines against fowl cholera, a genomics based approach was applied for the identification of novel immunogens.

Results

Bioinformatics analysis of the P. multocida genome predicted 129 proteins as secreted, located in the outer membrane, or lipoproteins. 105 of the genes encoding these proteins were cloned and recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli. Polyclonal serum from P. multocida-infected chickens reacted with a subset of these proteins.

Conclusion

These data show the range of bacterial immunogens recognized by the chicken immune system, including 6 novel immunoreactive proteins.