Figure 1

Boxplots of CD4+ T cell epitope nonamer cores (y-axis) in the Mtb72f vaccine predicted to bind to each of the twelve selected DRB1 alleles (x-axis) by the eight chosen epitope prediction programs. Epitopes found in the unmodified PepA protein but not in the vaccine have been excluded, as have epitopes found in the vaccine but not in the unmodified proteins. Boxes show the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile; whiskers show the minimum and maximum values excluding outliers (circles) and diamonds show the mean. The symbols next to the names of DRB1 alleles indicate the numbers of programs used to predict epitope binding to each allele: ! = 4, * = 5, # = 6, $ = 7, and + = 8. The highest outliers for alleles 0101, 0401, and 0701 on each chart are from MHCPred. a. Total vaccine epitope binding predictions. b. Vaccine epitope binding predictions for conserved epitopes only. Conserved epitopes are defined as epitope nonamer cores plus N- and C-terminal pentamer flanking sequences that are absent or mutated in no more than two of the variant strains sequenced. c. Epitopes in the vaccine but not in the native PPE18 or PepA proteins that are predicted to bind each DRB1 allele.