| Summary: | Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is an important pathogen causing respiratory disease in sheep. At present, the immune-associated antigens
of M. ovipneumoniae are still unknown, which significantly limits the development of new vaccines for M. ovipneumoniae. In order to
identify and characterize the immune-associated antigen genes, genomic expression library of M. ovipneumoniae was constructed and
identified, from which positive clones were recognized and screened by positive serum against M. ovipneumoniae. Sequence analysis
showed that these 10 clones contained 5 different genes encoding P97-like protein, P102-like protein, Translation initiation factor (IF-1),
Methionine aminopeptidase (MAP) and P56 membrane protein, respectively. Three proteins including IF-1, MAP and P97-like protein
were expressed in E. coli and used to immunize lambs to verify their immunogenicity, respectively. Animal immunization test confirmed
that the novel protein MAP displayed a strong immunogenicity, while the immunogenicity of P97-like protein and IF-1 were relatively
weak. The identification of immunogenic protein MAP provided a potentially valuable antigen candidate for the development of
serological diagnostic method and subunit vaccine against M. ovipneumoniae infection.
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