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Infect Immun, March 1998, p. 1200-1207, Vol. 66, No. 3
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Expression of Anaplasma marginale Major Surface Protein 2 Variants during Persistent Cyclic Rickettsemia

Dorothy M. French,* Terry F. McElwain, Travis C. McGuire, and Guy H. Palmer

Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164

Received 3 September 1997/Returned for modification 20 October 1997/Accepted 10 December 1997

Anaplasma marginale is an intraerythrocytic rickettsial pathogen of cattle in which infection persists for the life of the animal. Persistent A. marginale infection is characterized by repetitive rickettsemic cycles which we hypothesize reflect emergence of A. marginale antigenic variants. In this study, we determined whether variants of major surface protein 2 (MSP-2), a target of protective immunity encoded by a polymorphic multigene family, arise during persistent rickettsemia. By using a quantitative competitive PCR to identify rickettsemic cycles, msp-2 transcripts expressed in vivo were isolated from peak rickettsemia of sequential cycles. Cloning and sequencing of msp-2 cDNA revealed that genetic variants of MSP-2 emerge representing a minimum of four genetic variant types in each cycle during persistent infection. Two-color immunofluorescence using variant-specific antibody showed that emergence of MSP-2 variants resulted in expression of a minimum of three antigenic types of MSP-2 within one rickettsemic cycle. Therefore immune control of each cycle would require responses to an antigenically diverse A. marginale population. These findings demonstrate that polymorphic MSP-2 variants emerge during cyclic rickettsemia in persistent A. marginale infection and suggest that emergent variants play an important role in persistence.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-7040. Phone: (509) 335-6030. Fax: (509) 335-8529. E-mail: dmf{at}vetmed.wsu.edu.




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Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.