[Preparation and identification of polyclonal antibody against small peptides of beta-tubulin of Toxoplasma gondii].

The amino acid sequences of beta-tubulin from Toxoplasma gondii stains (GT1 and ME49) and human were aligned by ClustalW2 software. Based on the alignment result, the C-terminal peptides of beta-tubulin of T. gondii were artificially synthesized. Rabbits were immunized with 0.5 mg synthesized peptides for five times at 2-week intervals. Serum samples were collected at the second week after the final immunization, and were analyzed for specific antibodies by ELISA. Finally, the specific-beta-tubulin polyclonal antibody was evaluated by Western blotting with the total protein of RH strain, ME49 strain, and PRU strain of T. gondii, respectively. The results showed that beta-tubulin of T. gondii stains (GT1 and ME49) shared 100% amino-acid sequence identity, and there was 98% amino acid homology between T. gondii and human. The main variable region was the C-terminus. After the fifth immunization, the titers of polyclonal antibody reached 1 : 52,800. Western blotting result indicated that the specific-beta-tubulin polyclonal antibody reacted with beta-tubulin in all the three strains (RH, ME49, and PRU), respectively.