A new recombinant F1 antigen as a cost and time-effective tool for plague diagnosis

The Yersinia pestis capsular antigen F1 is widely used in plague laboratory diagnosis. Here, we describe the production of an F1 recombinant protein within reduced time and biosafety requirements. Its evaluation in hemagglutination tests indicated that the recombinant F1 can replace the conventional F1 protein for plague diagnosis. •The F1-rec can be produced with lower cost and biosafety requirements than F1-conv.•The use of histidine tag and chromatography reduce the time to F1 purification.•The F1-rec could replace F1-conv in hemagglutination test for plague diagnosis.