DNA vaccines encoding viral envelope proteins confer protective immunity against WSSV in black tiger shrimp

White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) is a major cause of mortality in shrimp and poses a huge threat to aquaculture industry. Till now no comprehensive or individual strategy has been established to combat white spot disease. Previous efforts by other investigators have given insight of protein vaccination and its efficacy to protect shrimp against WSSV infection. In this study, we have explored the protective efficacy of DNA vaccination and tissue distribution of the immunised recombinant plasmid in black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon). Four recombinant constructs were generated by inserting four genes encoding the WSSV structural proteins VP15, VP28, VP35 and VP281 individually into DNA vaccine vector pVAX1. Expression of these proteins from the recombinant plasmids was confirmed in vitro in CHO cell lines. For vaccination experiments, shrimp were immunised with these DNA constructs and later challenged with WSSV. A significant level of protection was offered by the plasmids encoding VP28 or VP281 till 7 weeks whereas protein vaccination failed to protect vaccinated shrimp after 3 weeks of first immunisation. In addition, our tissue distribution study revealed the persistence of immunised DNA at least upto 2 months in the injected shrimp muscle. Thus, our results suggest that DNA vaccination strategy will have potential utility against WSSV infection in shrimp cultivation.