Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1985 May;4(5):1231-5.
doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03765.x.

A major part of the polypeptide chain of tobacco mosaic virus protein is antigenic

Z A Moudallal  1 , J P Briand, M H Regenmortel
Affiliations

A major part of the polypeptide chain of tobacco mosaic virus protein is antigenic

Z A Moudallal et al. EMBO J. 1985 May.

Abstract

Eighteen synthetic peptides representing virtually the entire length of the polypeptide chain of tobacco mosaic virus coat protein (TMVP) have been analyzed for their ability to bind in an enzyme immunoassay to 30 monoclonal antibodies raised against the dissociated viral subunits. Only five of the monoclonal antibodies were able to bind a number of peptides while the other 25 antibodies recognized only the complete molecule and seemed to be specific for conformational features that are absent in the peptide fragments. The 18 peptides were also tested for their ability to bind to several antisera to TMVP. Virtually the entire sequence of TMVP possessed antigenic activity. Four new epitopes were identified in the vicinity of residues 19-32, 90-95, 115-134 and 134-146. These results bring to 11 the number of continuous epitopes that have been identified in the TMVP molecule and show that the entire surface of the molecule is antigenic. When peptides of TMVP of a length of 6-8 residues were tested for antigenic activity previously a correlation was found between the location of short continuous epitopes and mobile segments of the protein. In the present study, in which longer peptides as well as monoclonal antibodies were used to probe the antigenicity of TMVP, additional conformation-dependent epitopes were shown to be present. Our results illustrate the operational nature of any definition of antigenicity and caution against the use of any single criterion for distinguishing between antigenic and non-antigenic regions of a protein.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Nature. 1978 Jul 6;274(5666):92-4 - PubMed
    1. Mol Immunol. 1985 Mar;22(3):329-37 - PubMed
    1. Immunochemistry. 1969 Jan;6(1):53-66 - PubMed
    1. Adv Virus Res. 1966;12:207-71 - PubMed
    1. Mol Immunol. 1980 Oct;17(10):1205-12 - PubMed