RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Unique Epitope of Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus Gag Protein Spans the Cleavage Site between p16MA and p2L JF Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology JO CLIN. DIAGN. LAB. IMMUNOL. FD American Society for Microbiology SP 1277 OP 1281 DO 10.1128/CDLI.9.6.1277-1281.2002 VO 9 IS 6 A1 Lu, Ming A1 Zheng, Ling A1 Mitchell, Kathy A1 Kapil, Sanjay A1 Wood, Charles A1 Minocha, Harish YR 2002 UL http://cvi.asm.org/content/9/6/1277.abstract AB Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) and Jembrana disease virus (JDV) are closely related bovine lentiviruses that are difficult to distinguish by presently available diagnostic methods. Recently, in our laboratory, a monoclonal antibody (MAb; MAb 10H1) against the BIV Gag protein identified a differential epitope, located at the 6.4-kDa N terminus of a 29-kDa Gag capsid protein, which was absent in JDV. To define the essential amino acids of the epitope, a series of primers within the 163 bp of DNA corresponding to the 6.4-kDa protein were designed. The full-length 163-bp DNA fragment and the smaller DNA fragments with deletions were amplified by PCR and then cloned into pQE32 vectors for protein expression studies. The expressed proteins were analyzed with MAb 10H1 by Western blotting. The differential epitope has been narrowed to a 26-amino-acid region (R121 to R146), which includes 6 residues of p16MA (where MA represents the matrix protein) and 20 residues of p2L. A synthetic peptide corresponding to the putative 26-amino-acid epitope blocked MAb 10H1 binding to the expressed peptide. These experiments revealed that the epitope spans the cleavage site between p16MA and p2L and presumably will be valuable in distinguishing the two viruses.