Cloning, Expression and Characterisation of Recombinant Outer Membrane Protein 16 from Brucella spp.

Brucellosis is a disease caused by Brucella sp which is an aerobic, non-spore forming, non-motile gram negative coccobacillus. It is a National Institute of Health category B bioterror threat agent that causes incapacitating zoonosis. It is an emerging zoonosis, and an economically important infection of humans and livestock with a worldwide distribution. Medical defence against the bioterror threat posed by Brucella would be strengthened by development of a vaccine and improved diagnostic tests. Central to advancement of these goals is the discovery of bacterial constituents that are immunogenic or antigenic for humans and animals. Outer membrane proteins are particularly attractive for this purpose. In the present study, recombinant outer membrane protein 16 was expressed from Brucella abortus using prokaryotic expression vector and was characterized immunologically. The recombinant protein was purified and characterized immunologically by western blotting so that it can be used for development of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay or can be evaluated as vaccine candidate, in future.