Molecular cloning of the gene for a conserved major immunoreactive 28-kilodalton protein of Ehrlichia canis: a potential serodiagnostic antigen.

ABSTRACT: A gene encoding a 28-kDa protein of Ehrlichia canis was cloned, sequenced, and expressed, and a comparative molecular analysis with homologous genes of E. canis, Cowdria ruminantium, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis was performed. The complete gene has an 834-bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 278 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 30.5 kDa. An N-terminal signal sequence was identified, suggesting that the protein undergoes posttranslational modification to a mature 27.7-kDa protein (P28). The E. canis p28 gene has significant nucleic acid and amino acid sequence homologies with the E. chaffeensis outer membrane protein-1 (omp-1) gene family, with the Cowdria ruminantium map-1 gene, and with other E. canis 28-kDa-protein genes. Southern blotting revealed the presence of at le

SUBMITTER: McBride JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC103729 | biostudies-literature | 1999 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature