In Silico Identification of Diagnostic Candidates from Predicted Lipoproteome of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri

Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies capri (Mmc), the causative agent of caprine pleuro pneumonia/contagious agalactia is a major pathogen affecting goats worldwide. Development of specific immunodiagnostic assays for Mmc is often hampered by interspecies cross-reactivity with other caprine mycoplasmas and the intra species antigenic variability. The study presents a comparative and subtractive proteomic analysis to identify specific, conserved and immunogenic lipoproteins from Mmc proteome. Analysis of 896 proteins of Mmc strain 95010 predicted 72 lipoproteins by lipoP1.0 server. BLAST analysis revealed 17 putative non cross-reactive lipoproteins out of which seven were found to be conserved within the species. Further computational workflow employing ExPASy protein analysis tools and B cell epitope prediction softwares identified five lipoproteins suitable for development of immunodiagnostics.