Generation of antigenic variants via gene conversion: Evidence for recombination fitness selection at the locus level in Anaplasma marginale.

ABSTRACT: Multiple bacterial and protozoal pathogens utilize gene conversion to generate antigenically variant surface proteins to evade immune clearance and establish persistent infection. Both the donor alleles that encode the variants following recombination into an expression site and the donor loci themselves are under evolutionary selection: the alleles that encode variants that are sufficiently antigenically unique yet retain growth fitness and the loci that allow efficient recombination. We examined allelic usage in generating Anaplasma marginale variants during in vivo infection in the mammalian reservoir host and identified preferential usage of specific alleles in the absence of immune selective pressure, consistent with certain individual alleles having a fitness advantage for in vivo gr

SUBMITTER: Futse JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2715667 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature