Fig. 1

Characterization of the expressed and purified chimeric r4R protein. a SDS-PAGE analysis of the expression and purification steps of the r4R protein. Pellet (lane 1 and 3) and supernatant (lane 2 and 4) fractions of lysates from E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells containing the empty vector pET28a (lane 1 and 2) or pET28a-4R (lane 3 and 4) were electrophoresed in a 10 % SDS-PAGE gel. M indicates the protein ladder. Lane 5 contains the purified recombinant 4R protein. b Anti-Leptospira Western blot analysis. The purified chimeric r4R protein was run on a SDS-PAGE gel and transferred to a PVDF membrane. Serum from heat-killed L. interrogans strain Lai immunized rabbits was used as a primary antibody to detect r4R. Serum from PBS injected rabbits was used as control. c Anti-r4R Western analysis. The purified chimeric r4R protein was run on SDS-PAGE gel and transferred to a PVDF membrane. Serum from guinea pigsimmunized with PBS (negative control) or chimeric protein, were used as primary antibody