Merozoite surface antigen 2 proteins of Babesia bovis vaccine breakthrough isolates contain a unique hypervariable region composed of degenerate repeats.

ABSTRACT: The merozoite surface antigen 2 (MSA-2) proteins of Babesia bovis are members of the variable merozoite surface antigen (VMSA) family that have been implicated in erythrocyte invasion and are important targets for antibody-mediated blocking of invasion. Extensive sequence variation in another VMSA member, MSA-1, has been shown in all vaccine breakthrough isolates. To test the hypothesis that the msa-2 genes of vaccine breakthrough isolates would also encode a diverse set of proteins, the complete msa-2 locus was characterized from 12 Australian B. bovis strains and isolates, including two vaccine strains and eight vaccine breakthrough isolates, and compared to the loci in previously and newly characterized American strains. In contrast to American strains, the msa-2 loci of all Australian

SUBMITTER: Berens SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1273907 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature