Identification, Characterization, and Application of a Recombinant Antigen for the Serological Investigation of Feline Hemotropic Mycoplasma Infections
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In felids, three hemotropic mycoplasma species (hemoplasmas) have been described: Mycoplasma haemofelis, "Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum," and "Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis." In particular, M. haemofelis may cause severe, potentially life-threatening hemolytic anemia. No routine serological assays for feline hemoplasma infections are available. Thus, the goal of our project was to identify and characterize an M. haemofelis antigen (DnaK) that subsequently could be applied as a recombinant antigen in a serological assay. The gene sequence of this protein was determined using consensus primers and blood samples from two naturally M. haemofelis-infected Swiss pet cats, an experimentally M. haemofelis-infected specific-pathogen-free cat, and a naturally M. haemofelis-infected Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). The M. haemofelis DnaK gene sequence showed the highest identity to an analogous protein of a porcine hemoplasma (72%). M. haemofelis DnaK was expressed recombinantly in an Escherichia coli DnaK knockout strain and purified using Ni affinity, size-exclusion, and anion-exchange chromatography. It then was biochemically and functionally characterized and showed characteristics typical for DnaKs (secondary structure profile, thermal denaturation, ATPase activity, and DnaK complementation). Moreover, its immunogenicity was assessed using serum samples from experimentally hemoplasma-infected cats. In Western blotting or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, it was recognized by sera from cats infected with M. haemofelis, "Ca. Mycoplasma haemominutum," and "Ca. Mycoplasma turicensis," respectively, but not from uninfected cats. This is the first description of a full-length purified recombinant feline hemoplasma antigen that can readily be applied in future pathogenesis studies and may have potential for application in a diagnostic serological test.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".