All identified proteins were predicted by PSORTb 2.0, 10 proteins are annotated as periplasmic proteins, 7 are OMPs, 2 are extracellular proteins, 2 are cytoplasmic proteins, 1 is cytoplasmic membrane protein, and 8 are unknown. The detailed functions of the identified immunoreactive Sotrastaurin order proteins are shown in supplemental table S1 [see additional file 1] according to the results predicted by COGnitor. Interestingly, 3 immunogenic proteins, MomP1, MomP2 and elongation factor Tu were identified from OMPs and ECPs simultaneously, which might be due to outer membrane vesicles released in the milieu [12],

from which outer membrane proteins have been identified successfully from E. coli and A. pleuropneumoniae[8, 13], and to dual localization of elongation factor Tu [14]. Characterization of identified immunogenic proteins Our immunogenic approach led to the identification of 6 known antigens of A. pleuropneumoniae, namely MomP1, MomP2, ApxIIA, ApxIIIA, Na+-translocating NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunit A (NqrA) and outer membrane ferric hydroxamate receptor (FhuA)[15, 16]. And other well-known antigens, like ApxI, ApxIV, outer membrane lipoprotein A (OmlA), outer membrane protein precursor (PalA) and Transferrin binding proteins (Tbp)

proteins could not be detected in the present study. ApxIV is buy Poziotinib only induced in vivo and JL03, serotype 3 strain, can not produce ApxI, and therefore we could not detect ApxI and ApxIV. Tbp proteins are expressed under iron limited conditions and the cells we collected were not prepared under such conditions. So Tbp proteins did not appear in our results. The highly hydrophobic

nature of Bortezomib molecular weight OmlA and PalA might cause their loss during extraction procedure. PalA has been proved to be detrimental when used in vaccines[17], and thus we should be cautious about similar immunogenic proteins while applying them to vaccine development. In addition, we found 16 immunogenic proteins that had an significant sequence similarity to known proteins, and they have already been shown immunogenic in certain pathogenic bacteria, but not in A. pleuropneumoniae before, namely D15/OmpD, LppB, FrdA, MDH, FepA, FrpB, TufB, PotD, GapA, ZnuA, TIG, DegP, TufB, PsaA, FkpA and PTA. The homolog D15/Omp85 is an essential component for outer membrane biogenesis and OMP assembly [18, 19]. The immunogenicity of D15 and its homolog Omp87 has been demonstrated in Haemophilus ducreyi [20] and Pasteurella multocida [21] respectively. Furthermore, antibodies against the COOH-terminal “”surface antigen”" domain of D15 are protective against Haemophilus influenzae infection in animal models [22]. The immunoreactive spot O16 was homologous to LppB and shared 49% sequence identity with LppB of H. somni that has been shown as an immunodominant protein [23], and the gene lppB of A. pleuropneumoniae is important for survival during infection[24].