After washing the column with 10 volumes 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 25 mM KCl, the bound proteins were eluted with a gradient from 0 to 1.5 M KCl in 25 mM Tris/HCl (pH 7.5) and the fractions were checked by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The fractions containing the SpHtp124-198-(His)6 recombinant protein were pooled and applied to an Ni-NTA Agarose column (Invitrogen, 1 cm diameter × 10 cm). The column was washed with 100 mL of 25 mM Tris/HCl containing 30 mM imidazol (pH 7.5) and proteins were eluted with 25 mM Selleckchem Alectinib Tris/HCl containing 300 mM imidazol adjusted to pH 7.1, and

checked by SDS-PAGE. The purified protein was concentrated using Vivaspin 6 centricons (MWCO 5000), dialysed three times against 3 L 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and checked by Coomassie staining on SDS-PAGE. The protein was further characterized by circular-dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to investigate its secondary structure. CD-spectra were recorded on a Jasco J710 spectrometer using 5-μM protein in a 1 mm cell in 50 mM potassium phosphate

buffer (pH 7.2) (Fig. S6). SDS-PAGE was essentially performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Invitrogen). Gradient 4–12% Bis-Tris NuPage gels were used with NuPage MES-SDS running buffer (Invitrogen). Protein samples were dissolved in Laemmli SDS buffer (Invitrogen) containing 8M urea and 2%β-mercaptoethanol. A polyclonal SpHtp1 antiserum was raised in rabbits against a peptide consisting of the Veliparib manufacturer aa 93-107 of SpHtp1 (TKDKTTPMKNALFK) Etofibrate (Sigma-Genosys), and specificity was tested on purified SpHtp124-198-(His)6 using Western blot analysis. Purified SpHtp124-198-(His)6 and a protein extract of Saprolegnia-infected RTG-2 cells were run on an SDS-PAGE gel and transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane. The membrane was incubated overnight at 4 °C in phosphate-buffered saline+0.2% Tween-20 (PBS-T) and 5% skimmed milk powder. After washing the membrane several times in PBS-T, it was incubated for 1 h with preimmune or final bleed antibody,

diluted 1 : 400 in PBS. Membranes were washed several times in PBS-T and incubated for 1 h in secondary horse-radish peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit antibody (Sigma-Aldrich, No. A0545), diluted 1 : 16000 in PBS-T. After several washes, membranes were developed using Pierce ECL Western Blotting Substrate (Thermo Scientific), according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Membranes were exposed to a Kodak BioMax XAR film (Amersham Biosciences). RTG-2 cells were grown as a confluent monolayer onto coverslips in six-well plates and challenged as described above. The infected monolayers were washed carefully three times with PBS, before fixation in 4% paraformaldehyde/PBS for 1 h at room temperature. Samples were permeabilized with 0.1% Triton-X 100 for 15 min and incubated in the presence of either 1 : 400 diluted preimmune or final bleed SpHtp1 antisera at 37 °C for 1 h.