Production of monoclonal antibodies against chicken Pop1 (BVES)

Pop1 (BVES) is a member of the Popeye gene family which was named for its high-level expression in the heart and other muscle lineages. However, these proteins have no sequence similarity to any other gene family and their function is unclear. Here we report the production of recombinant chicken Pop1/BVES protein and the generation of two Pop1/BVES specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) 3F11-D9-E8 and 1B3-G11-A8. These antibodies detect recombinant Pop1/BVES in ELISAs and endogenous chicken Pop1/BVES in chicken heart extracts by Western blotting. Further, both 3F11-D9-E8 and 1B3-G11-A8 detect Pop1/BVES specifically in the cardiomyocytes of 8-day-old embryonic chicken hearts by immunofluorescence. These MAbs will be useful in immunolocalization and immunoblotting experiments of different tissue types to determine the location and levels of Pop1/BVES expression throughout development, as well as further analysis of the biochemistry of this protein.