Rapid sequential changeover of expressed p44 genes during the acute phase of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in horses.

ABSTRACT: Anaplasma phagocytophilum immunodominant polymorphic major surface protein P44s have been hypothesized to go through antigenic variation, but the within-host dynamics of p44 expression has not been demonstrated. In the present study we investigated the composition and changes of p44 transcripts in the blood during the acute phase of well-defined laboratory A. phagocytophilum infections in naive equine hosts. Three traveling waves of sequential population changeovers of the p44 transcript species were observed within a single peak of rickettsemia of less than 1 month. During the logarithmic increase, the rapid switch-off of the initial dominant transcript p44-18 occurred regardless of whether the bacterium was transmitted by ticks or by intravenous inoculation. Each of the subsequently domi

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC529143 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature