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Infection and Immunity, December 2004, p. 6852-6859, Vol. 72, No. 12
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.12.6852-6859.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Rapid Sequential Changeover of Expressed p44 Genes during the Acute Phase of Anaplasma phagocytophilum Infection in Horses

Xueqi Wang,1 Yasuko Rikihisa,1* Tzung-Hui Lai,1 Yumi Kumagai,1 Ning Zhi,1,{dagger} and Stephen M. Reed2

Department of Veterinary Biosciences,1 Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio2

Received 9 June 2004/ Returned for modification 5 July 2004/ Accepted 11 August 2004

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 naïve 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 dominant p44 transcript species was phylogenetically dissimilar from p44-18. Development of antibody to the hypervariable region of P44-18 during the rickettsemia suggests the suppression of dominance of immuno-cross-reactive p44 populations. When A. phagocytophilum was preincubated with plasma from the infected horse and then coincubated with HL-60 cells, the dominance of the p44-18 transcript was rapidly suppressed in vitro and most of the newly emerged p44 transcript species were previously undetected in this horse. This work provides experimental evidence of within-host p44 antigenic variation. Results suggest that the rapid and synchronized switch of expression is an intrinsic property of p44s reinitiated after transmission to naïve mammalian hosts and shaped upon exposure to immune plasma.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Veterinary Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, 1925 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210-1093. Phone: (614) 292-5661. Fax: (614) 292-6473. E-mail: rikihisa.1{at}osu.edu.

Editor: J. T. Barbieri

{dagger} Present address: Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md.

Infection and Immunity, December 2004, p. 6852-6859, Vol. 72, No. 12
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.12.6852-6859.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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