1. Human antisera detect a Plasmodium falciparum genomic clone encoding a nonapeptide repeat
- Author
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Gordon Langsley, Artur Scherf, Benno Müller−Hill, Luis Pereira da Silva, Lisa Sibilli, Odile Puijalon, Michael Koenen, and Philippe Dubois
- Subjects
Plasmodium falciparum ,Clone (cell biology) ,Fluorescent Antibody Technique ,Molecular cloning ,Complementary DNA ,parasitic diseases ,Parasite hosting ,Animals ,Humans ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Antigens ,Cloning, Molecular ,Gene ,Cloning ,Genetics ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Base Sequence ,Immune Sera ,Nucleic Acid Hybridization ,DNA Restriction Enzymes ,biology.organism_classification ,genomic DNA ,Genes ,Plasmids - Abstract
Plasmodium falciparum causes malaria infections in its human host. Its wide distribution in tropical countries is a major world health problem. Before a vaccine can be produced, the identification and characterization of parasite antigens is necessary. This can be achieved by the cloning and subsequent analysis of genes coding for parasite antigens1–4. Recently established cDNA banks allow the expression of cDNA derived from the simian parasite Plasmodium knowlesi5 and P. falciparum6,7 in Escherichia coli. Recombinants encoding parasite antigens have been identified by immunodetection in both banks. Two of them contain repetitive units of 11 (ref. 7) or 12 (ref. 5) amino acids. We describe here the construction of an expression bank made directly from randomly generated fragments of P. falciparum genomic DNA. We detect several clones which react strongly with human African immune sera. One clone expresses an antigenic determinant composed of occasionally degenerated repeats of a peptide nonamer.
- Published
- 1984