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Redundancy and recombination in the Echinococcus AgB multigene family: is there any similarity with protozoan contingency genes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2006

K. L. HAAG ,
B. GOTTSTEIN ,
N. MÜLLER ,
A. SCHNORR  and
F. J. AYALA
K. L. HAAG
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 91501-970 RS, Brazil PPGBM, Institute of Biological Sciences, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 91501-970 RS, Brazil
B. GOTTSTEIN
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Berne, Berne, CH-3001, Switzerland
N. MÜLLER
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Berne, Berne, CH-3001, Switzerland
A. SCHNORR
Affiliation:
PPGBM, Institute of Biological Sciences, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 91501-970 RS, Brazil
F. J. AYALA
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
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Abstract

Numerous genetic variants of the Echinococcus antigen B (AgB) are encountered within a single metacestode. This could be a reflection of gene redundancy or the result of a somatic hypermutation process. We evaluate the complexity of the AgB multigene family by characterizing the upstream promoter regions of the 4 already known genes (EgAgB1-EgAgB4) and evaluating their redundancy in the genome of 3 Echinococcus species (E. granulosus, E. ortleppi and E. multilocularis) using PCR-based approaches. We have ascertained that the number of AgB gene copies is quite variable, both within and between species. The most repetitive gene seems to be AgB3, of which there are more than 110 copies in E. ortleppi. For E. granulosus, we have cloned and characterized 10 distinct upstream promoter regions of AgB3 from a single metacestode. Our sequences suggest that AgB1 and AgB3 are involved in gene conversion. These results are discussed in light of the role of gene redundancy and recombination in parasite evasion mechanisms of host immunity, which at present are known for protozoan organisms, but virtually unknown for multicellular parasites.

Keywords

hydatid diseaseantigen Bpromoterrecombinationantigen diversityreal-time PCR
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 133 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 411 - 419
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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