Peptide selection and antibody generation for the prospective immunorecognition of Cry1Ab16 protein of transgenic maize

卷:231

Costa, Joana ; Marani, Mariela M. ; Grazina, Liliana ; Villa, Caterina ; Meira, Liliana ; Oliveira, M. Beatriz P. P. ; Leite, Jose R. S. A. ; Mafra, Isabel

Univ Porto

关键词: Cry1A(b)16 toxin;    Linear and discontinuous epitopes;    B- and T-cell epitope prediction;    Bioinformatics;    GMO;    Processed food;    Antibody production;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.03.154

学科分类：食品科学和技术

【 摘 要 】

The introduction of genes isolated from different Bacillus thuringiensis strains to express Cry-type toxins in transgenic crops is a common strategy to confer insect resistance traits. This work intended to extensively in silico analyse Cry1A(b) 16 protein for the identification of peptide markers for the biorecognition of transgenic crops. By combining two different strategies based on several bioinformatic tools for linear epitope prediction, a set of seven peptides was successfully selected as potential Cry1A(b) 16 immunogens. For the prediction of conformational epitopes, Cry1A(b) 16 models were built on the basis of three independent templates of homologue proteins of Cry1A(a) and Cry1A(c) using an integrated approach. PcH_736-746 and PcH_876-886 peptides were selected as the best candidates, being synthesised and used for the production of polyclonal antibodies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt of selecting and defining linear peptides as immunogenic markers of Cry1A(b)-type toxins in transgenic maize. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.