F. Chris Minion

TL;DR: The complete genome sequence of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, an important member of the porcine respiratory disease complex, is presented, finding few genes with tandem repeat sequences that could be involved in phase switching or antigenic variation and it is not clear how M. hyop pneumoniae evades the immune response and establishes a chronic infection.

TL;DR: It is shown that the cilium adhesin is proteolytically processed on the surface, with processing is complex, with cleavage occurring at different frequencies within multiple sites, and is strain specific.

TL;DR: Two new real-time PCR assays that are specific and capable of detecting all of the M. hyopneumoniae isolates used in this study were developed were developed.

TL;DR: The nested PCR developed for this study was found to be a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tool for M. hyopneumoniae, but the enhanced sensitivity may be unnecessary if the proper sites are sampled.

TL;DR: These studies offer an approach by which a thorough understanding of the mechanisms governing antigenic instability can be elucidated in order to optimize the in vivo performance of biodegradable delivery devices as protein carriers and/or vaccine adjuvants.