| Literature DB >> 32995924 |
Ying Ma1, Yunwei Hao1, Min Li1, Zhengxiang Hu2, Ruiqi Song3,1, Liting Wei1, Shilong Fan1, Songqin Chen1, Xinli Fan1, Xuejie Zhai1, Qingyong Guo4, Chahan Bayin5.
Abstract
Dermacentor marginatus is a widespread tick species and a vector of many pathogens in Eurasia. Due to the medical importance of D. marginatus, control measures are needed for this tick species. Currently tick control approaches rely mostly on acaricide application, whereas wrong and irrational acaricide use may result in drug resistance and residue problems. Vaccination as an alternative approach for tick control has been proven to be effective towards some tick species. However, immunization against D. marginatus has not yet reached satisfactory protection. The effort of in silico based analysis could predict antigenicity and identify candidates for anti-tick vaccine development. We carried out an in silico analysis of D. marginatus glutathione S-transferases (DmGSTs) in order to identify blood-feeding induced GSTs as antigens that can be used in anti-tick vaccine development. Phylogenetic analysis, linear B-cell epitope prediction, homology modeling, and conformational B-cell epitope mapping on the GST models were performed to identify highly antigenic DmGSTs. Relative gene expressions of the seven GSTs were profiled through real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) to outline GSTs up-regulated during blood feeding. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that the seven GSTs belonged to four classes of GST, including one in epsilon-class, one in zeta-class, one in omega-class, and four in mu-class. Linear B-cell epitope prediction revealed mu-class GSTs share similar conserved antigenic regions. The conformational B-cell epitope mapped on the homology model of the GSTs displayed that GSTs of mu-class showed stronger antigenicity than that of other classes. RT-qPCR revealed DmGSTM1 and DmGSTM2 were positively related to blood feeding. In sum, the data suggest that DmGSTM1 and DmGSTM2 could be tested for potential anti-tick vaccine trials.Entities:
Keywords: B-cell epitope mapping; Dermacentor marginatus; Gene expression; Glutathione S-transferase
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Year: 2020 PMID: 32995924 PMCID: PMC7524029 DOI: 10.1007/s10493-020-00546-7
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Exp Appl Acarol ISSN: 0168-8162 Impact factor: 2.132
Fig. 1Unrooted phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between Dermacentor marginatus GST orthologs. A phylogeny using protein sequences was constructed for classification of DmGSTs. Sequences were aligned using the ClustalW server. Model selection was performed with Prottest. The tree was built by PhyML using Maximum likelihood (ML) method. GST sequences obtained in the study are marked with dots. Bootstrap value was set to 1000. (For interpretation of the references to colors in this figure, refer to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 2Amino acid sequence alignment of Dermacentor marginatus (Dm) GSTs. The identical residues are depicted in a black background, whereas similar residues are shown in gray shading. The sequence alignments were done using ClustalW, and Boxshade was used to obtain the shaded schematic representation. a Mu-class GST sequences are aligned, and highlighted shade in green represents predicted B-cell linear epitopes. b GST sequences are aligned among different classes (using DmGSTM1 to represent mu-class), and highlighted shade in violet represents predicted B-cell linear epitopes. The aligned sequences and GenBank accession numbers: DmGSTM1 (MN699679), DmGSTM2 (MN699680), DmGSTM3 (MN699681), DmGSTM4 (MT665976), DmGSTE1 (MT665977), DmGSTZ1 (MT665978), DmGSTO1 (MT665979). (For interpretation of the references to colors in this figure caption, refer to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3Structural illustration of the predicted conserved B-cell epitopes. The structures for GSTs were built based on existing 3D GST models (PDB: 1b4p. 1 for mu-class, 3mak.1 for epsilon-class, 1fw1.1 for zeta-class, 4is0.1 for omega-class). The homodimer models of the seven GSTs are shown in two colors: blue represents chain A and beige represents chain B, whereas red stands for predicted conformational epitopes. Epitopes were mapped according to the prediction results by DiscoTope (Table S4). The GST models are fixed at the same template to exhibit one symmetric side of the homodimer forwards and the other symmetric side by rotating 180° right. M1–M4 represents DmGSTM1–4; E1, DmGSTE1; Z1, DmGSTZ1; O1, DmGSTO1. (For interpretation of the references to colors in this figure caption, refer to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 4Differentially expressed GST genes in Dermacentor marginatus during blood feeding and in developmental stages. The X axis shows various states of the tick. The Y axis shows gene expression fold-changes. Unfed female was used as the reference. Dermacentor marginatus elongation factor 1 alpha was used to normalize the expression profiles. adult female tick; adult male tick; SE semi-engorged; E engorged; SG salivary gland; MG midgut; OV ovary; Mal Malpighian tube