In article <n1375720725.25318 at hermes.bc.edu> Hoffmacs,
Hoffmacs at HERMES.BC.EDU writes:
>Can anyone tell me where they have had favorable outcomes in having an
>antibody raised to a yeast protein or to a peptide designed from a yeast
>protein? I have heard that one should avoid injection of female animals due
>to prior yeast infections. Is this true or just a ploy of the "Save the
>female animal" lobby?
>Charlie Hoffman
>"I'd rather be fission."
Some years ago we made antibodies in rabbits, and found that the rabbits'
prebleeds recognized a wide variety of yeast proteins. We had to affinity
purify the antibody to get good data with the sera.
More recently we tried a different strategy. We used a commercial
antibody company (rabbit farm?) to make the sera. We asked them to set
aside eight rabbits, take prebleeds from the rabbits, and send us the
prebleed sera. We then tested the prebleeds for reactivity to yeast
proteins by western blotting. Probably six of the eight rabbits had
anti-yeast sera (had a prior yeast infection?), but one or two were
clean. We then ask the company to inject the clean rabbits with our
immunogen, and release the dirty ones back into their pool of rabbits
available for other purposes. We had to pay for the eight prebleeds, and
the per diem costs for the eight rabbits for the time between the
prebleeds and when we tell them to release the unneeded rabbits. It is a
small extra cost, but we got clean sera with low background.
We used a Hazleton Research Products (800-345-4115; fax 215-267-5344) to
make the sera. Usual disclaimer: no commercial affiliation with Hazleton
Research Products.
David Stillman
University of Utah
