This document has been requested by Jared Scarlett of Baldwins as part of patent development. It contains data showing that serum raised against M1 GT2 protein inhibit methane production and growth of Methanobrevibacter ruminantium M1. Both NZAGRC and PGgRc were involved with identification and testing of M1 GT2 (mru_2175).

The GT2 was produced as a recombinant protein in a NZAGRC program (1.5 Expression of vaccine target proteins). The recombinant protein was produced in 2010-2011 (reported in the 2010-11 annual report to NZAGRC). Antisera in sheep against the recombinant M1 GT2 was produced and tested in in vitro M1 cultures in the PGgRc program (inhibition of growth of M1 cultures by antisera against GT2 was reported in the 2011-12 annual report to the PGgRc (METH0701). The bioinformatics analysis conducted that identified GT2 as a potential vaccine target probably was done within the PGgRc. The target was one of ten identified in a document prepared in December 2010 by Sinead Leahy, Ron Ronimus and William Kelly. Initial testing of M1 GT2 was through using peptides before expressing the large extracellular domain of the protein. There was no GPLER MPI involvement at any stage in identifying, producing and testing GT2 in in vitro cultures. 
