Evaluation of immune protective efficacies of Eimeria tenella EtMic1 polypeptides with different domain recombination displayed on yeast surface

Abstract

In the present study, three different live oral vaccines using the EBY100/pCTCON-2 yeast surface display system with different Eimeria tenella microneme-1 (EtMic1) protein domain recombination were constructed and their protective efficacies against homologous challenge were compared by evaluating the body weight gains, relative growth rate, cecal lesion scores, oocyst output, oocyst decrease ratio, anti-coccidial index, the serum antibody levels and the proliferation ability of blood lymphocytes. The results indicated that all the three constructed live oral vaccines expressing different EtMic1 polypeptides provided excellent protection against homologous challenge by significantly increasing weight gains, reducing cecal lesions, achieving a high ACI, elevating specific antibody response and splenocyte proliferation ability compared with controls. The yeasts displaying the EtMic1 polypeptide-III (expressed TSP-2, TSP-3 and TSP-4 domains) provided better protection against challenge than the yeasts displaying either the EtMic1 polypeptide-I (expressed I-domain, TSP-1 and TSP-2) or polypeptide-II (expressed I-domain and all the five TSP domains) did. Considering the exclusion of antibiotic resistant gene in the system, the strain EBY100 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae may be a better choice for coccidian antigen delivery.

Keywords: EtMic1; Live oral vaccine; TSP domain; Yeast surface display.