Putative antigenic proteins identified by comparative and subtractive reverse vaccinology in necrotic enteritis-causing Clostridium perfringens isolated from broiler chickens

BMC Genomics

Valeria R. Parreira¹  Sylvain Quessy²  Ilhem Meniaï²  Alexandre Thibodeau³  Marie-Lou Gaucher³  Philippe Fravalo³  Guy Beauchamp⁴ 

[1] Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, ON, Canada;Département de Pathologie et Microbiologie, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, J2S 2M2, St-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada;Département de Pathologie et Microbiologie, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, J2S 2M2, St-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada;Swine and Poultry Infectious Diseases Research Centre (CRIPA), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, J2S 2M2, St-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada;Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, J2S 2M2, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada;

关键词: Broiler chickens;    Necrotic enteritis;    Clostridium perfringens;    Comparative subtractive reverse vaccinology;    Candidate proteins;    Vaccine;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12864-021-08216-7

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAvian necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringens is a disease with a major economic impact, generating losses estimated to 6 billion of dollars annually for the poultry industry worldwide. The incidence of the disease is particularly on the rise in broiler chicken flocks eliminating the preventive use of antibiotics. To date, no alternative allows for the efficient prevention of NE and a control of the disease using a vaccinal strategy would be mostly prized. For this purpose, comparative and subtractive reverse vaccinology identifying putative immunogenic bacterial surface proteins is one of the most promising approaches.ResultsA comparative genomic study was performed on 16 C. perfringens strains isolated from healthy broiler chickens and from broilers affected with necrotic enteritis. Results showed that the analyzed genomes were composed of 155,700 distinct proteins from which 13% were identified as extracellular, 65% as cytoplasmic and 22% as part of the bacterial membrane. The evaluation of the immunogenicity of these proteins was determined using the prediction software VaxiJen®.ConclusionsFor the most part, proteins with the highest scores were associated with an extracellular localisation. For all the proteins analyzed, the combination of both the immunogenicity score and the localisation prediction led to the selection of 12 candidate proteins that were mostly annotated as hypothetical proteins. We describe 6 potential candidates of higher interest due to their antigenic potential, their extracellular localisation, and their possible role in virulence of C. perfringens.

【 授权许可】

CC BY