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Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5925-5929, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

A DNA Sequence Corresponding to the Gene Encoding Cysteine Proteinase 5 in Entamoeba histolytica Is Present and Positionally Conserved but Highly Degenerated in Entamoeba dispar

Ute Willhoeft, Lutz Hamann,dagger and Egbert Tannich*

Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany

Received 21 June 1999/Returned for modification 28 July 1999/Accepted 1 September 1999

Cysteine proteinases of Entamoeba histolytica are considered to be one of the most important classes of molecules responsible for the parasite's ability to destroy human tissues. Interestingly, one particular cysteine proteinase, located on the surface of E. histolytica trophozoites and designated cysteine proteinase 5 (CP5), is not expressed in the closely related but nonpathogenic species Entamoeba dispar. By comparing the E. histolytica and E. dispar genomic loci containing the gene for CP5 (cp5), it was found that the position of cp5 within the genomic context is conserved between the two organisms, but that the gene is highly degenerated in E. dispar, as it contains numerous nucleotide exchanges, insertions, and deletions, resulting in multiple stop codons within the cp5 reading frame. An alignment of all available orthologous E. histolytica and E. dispar DNA sequences suggested that cp5 started to degenerate in E. dispar coincidently when the two organisms began to diverge from a common ancestor.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Str. 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany. Phone: 49 (40) 42818-477. Fax: 49 (40) 42818-512. E-mail: tannich{at}bni.uni-hamburg.de.

dagger Present address: Department of Immunology and Cell Biology, Forschungszentrum Borstel, 23845 Borstel, Germany.

Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5925-5929, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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