USE OF RECOMBINANT GP135 TO STUDY EPITOPE-SPECIFIC ANTIBODY-RESPONSESTO MAEDI-VISNA VIRUS

The envelope glycoprotein gp135 of the ovine lentivirus maedi visna vi rus (MVV) is the main target for neutralising antibody in vivo, howeve r little is known about the specific regions of gp135 which elicit thi s neutralising response. We have used the polymerase chain reaction (P CR) to generate overlapping fragments of the gp135 gene which have bee n expressed as fusion proteins in the yeast Ty-VLP system. These fusio n proteins have been used to analyse the antibody response to gp135 in MVV infected sheep and we are able to identify at least three distinc t regions of gp135 to which antibodies are directed. The approach desc ribed in this paper provides a rapid and simple method of generating o verlapping fusion proteins with which to carry out epitope mapping stu dies.