Anaplasma marginale superinfection attributable to pathogen strains with distinct genomic backgrounds.

ABSTRACT: Strain superinfection occurs when a second pathogen strain infects a host already infected with a primary strain. The selective pressures that drive strain divergence, which underlies superinfection, and allow penetration of a new strain into a host population are critical knowledge gaps relevant to shifts in infectious disease epidemiology. In regions of endemicity with a high prevalence of infection, broad population immunity develops against Anaplasma marginale, a highly antigenically variant rickettsial pathogen, and creates strong selective pressure for emergence of and superinfection with strains that differ in their Msp2 variant repertoires. The strains may emerge either by msp2 locus duplication and allelic divergence on an existing genomic background or by introduction of a strain

SUBMITTER: Vallejo Esquerra E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4249265 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature