IMMUNE-RESPONSE TO SYNTHETIC PEPTIDES REPRESENTING ANTIGENIC SITES ONTHE GLYCOPROTEIN OF INFECTIOUS HEMATOPOIETIC NECROSIS VIRUS

Monoclonal antibodies against infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus have been used to react with recombinant expression products in immuno blots and to select neutralization-resistant mutants for sequence anal ysis. These strategies identified neutralizing and non-neutralizing an tigenic sites on the viral glycoprotein. Synthetic peptides based upon the amino acid sequences of these antigenic sites were synthesized an d were injected together with an adjuvant into rainbow trout. The cons tructs generally failed to stimulate neutralizing antibodies in the fi sh. These results indicate that we need to understand more about the a bility of peptide antigens to stimulate fish immune systems.