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Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale by expression of MSP2 mosaics.
Title | Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale by expression of MSP2 mosaics. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2000 |
Authors | Barbet, AF, Lundgren, A, Yi, J, Rurangirwa, FR, Palmer, GH |
Journal | Infect Immun |
Volume | 68 |
Issue | 11 |
Pagination | 6133-8 |
Date Published | 2000 Nov |
ISSN | 0019-9567 |
Keywords | Amino Acid Sequence, Anaplasma, Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins, Base Sequence, Genes, Bacterial, Genetic Variation, Molecular Sequence Data, Multigene Family, Open Reading Frames, Polymorphism, Genetic, RNA, Messenger |
Abstract | Anaplasma marginale is a tick-borne pathogen, one of several closely related ehrlichial organisms that cause disease in animals and humans. These Ehrlichia species have complex life cycles that require, in addition to replication and development within the tick vector, evasion of the immune system in order to persist in the mammalian reservoir host. This complexity requires efficient use of the small ehrlichial genome. A. marginale and related ehrlichiae express immunoprotective, variable outer membrane proteins that have similar structures and are encoded by polymorphic multigene families. We show here that the major outer membrane protein of A. marginale, MSP2, is encoded on a polycistronic mRNA. The genomic expression site for this mRNA is polymorphic and encodes numerous amino acid sequence variants in bloodstream populations of A. marginale. A potential mechanism for persistence is segmental gene conversion of the expression site to link hypervariable msp2 sequences to the promoter and polycistron. |
Alternate Journal | Infect. Immun. |
PubMed ID | 11035716 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC97690 |
Grant List | AI44005 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States AI45580 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States |