Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale: major surface protein 2 diversity during cyclic transmission between ticks and cattle.

ABSTRACT: The rickettsial pathogen Anaplasma marginale expresses a variable immunodominant outer membrane protein, major surface protein 2 (MSP2), involved in antigenic variation and long-term persistence of the organism in carrier animals. MSP2 contains a central hypervariable region of about 100 amino acids that encodes immunogenic B-cell epitopes that induce variant-specific antibodies during infection. Previously, we have shown that MSP2 is encoded on a polycistronic mRNA transcript in erythrocyte stages of A. marginale and defined the structure of the genomic expression site for this transcript. In this study, we show that the same expression site is utilized in stages of A. marginale infecting tick salivary glands. We also analyzed the variability of this genomic expression site in Oklahoma st

SUBMITTER: Barbet AF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC98260 | biostudies-literature | 2001 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature