Identification of Tropomyosin and Its Immunological Properties from Larvae of Cattle Tick, Boophilus annulatus.

BACKGROUND

Boophilus annulatus is an obligate blood feeder tick that can cause great losses in animals due to anemia and its ability to injure its host skin directly. The aim of this study was identification of cattle humoral immune response to some tick proteins during experimental infestation.

METHODS

Immune sera against tick were collected from experimentally infested cattle with ticks. One and two-dimensional electrophoresis and Western blotting methods were used for the detection of immunogenic proteins in larval tick extract and eight of these proteins were identified by MALDITOF and MALDI-TOF-TOF mass spectrometry.

RESULTS

In non-reducing one-dimensional SDS-PAGE, some bounds between 12 to more than 250-kDa appeared. In two-dimensional SDS-PAGE, numerous spot appeared and the identified immunogenic proteins by parallel immunoblotting weighted between 14 and 97 kDa. Amino acid sequences of protein spot with 37-kDa molecular weight had identity to tropomyosin based on Mascot search in NCBI.

CONCLUSION

Anti tropomyosin antibodies can be induced in experimentally infested hosts with ticks and it seems that tropomyosin can be useful for the development of anti tick vaccines.