XVI. The<i>Pneumocystis carinii</i>major surface glycoprotein (MSG): its potential involvement in the pathophysiology of pneumocystosis

Benfield, Thomas; Lundgren, Jens D

doi:10.1111/j.1574-695x.1998.tb01197.x

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Contingency proteins are often secreted or external glycoproteins and are frequently encoded telomerically (Barry et al 2003). Such proteins have been shown to be involved in host-pathogen interaction and parasite survival in the host with examples including the variant surface glycoprotein of Trypanosma brucei, which undergoes antigenic variation to evade the host immune responses and allow parasite survival (Barry et al 2003;Yang et al 2009), the var genes of Plasmodium falciparum (Kyes et al 2001), the trans-sialidases of Trypanosoma cruzi (Kim et al 2005), the major surface glycoproteins of Pneumocystis carnii (Benfield and Lundgren 1998) and the recently described subtelomeric variable secreted proteins of Theileria (Schmuckli-Maurer et al 2009). The telomeres are prime sites for genes which are interacting with the host and evolving quickly because they are themselves dynamic and subject to novel forms of (epigenetic) regulation (Bhattacharyya and Lustig 2006;Tonkin et al 2009;Yang et al 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A new heterogeneous family of telomerically encoded Cryptosporidium proteins

Bouzid

Hunter

McDonald

et al. 2012

Evolutionary Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cryptosporidiosis is predominantly caused by two closely related species of protozoan parasites the zoonotic Cryptosporidium parvum and anthroponotic Cryptosporidium hominis which diverge phenotypically in respect to host range and virulence. Using comparative genomics we identified two genes displaying overt heterogeneity between species. Although initial work suggested both were species specific, Cops-1 for C. parvum and Chos-1 for C. hominis, subsequent study identified an abridged ortholog of Cops-1 in C. hominis. Cops-1 and Chos-1 showed limited, but significant, similarity to each other and share common features: (i) telomeric location: Cops-1 is the last gene on chromosome 2, whilst Chos-1 is the first gene on chromosome 5, (ii) encode circa 50-kDa secreted proteins with isoelectric points above 10, (iii) are serine rich, and (iv) contain internal nucleotide repeats. Importantly, Cops-1 sequence contains specific SNPs with good discriminatory power useful epidemiologically. C. parvum-infected patient sera recognized a 50-kDa protein in antigen preparations of C. parvum but not C. hominis, consistent with Cops-1 being antigenic for patients. Interestingly, anti-Cops-1 monoclonal antibody (9E1) stained oocyst content and sporozoite surface of C. parvum only. This study provides a new example of protozoan telomeres as rapidly evolving contingency loci encoding putative virulence factors.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), the trans‐sialidases of Trypanosoma cruzi (Kim et al. ), the major surface glycoproteins of Pneumocystis carnii (Benfield and Lundgren ) and the recently described subtelomeric variable secreted proteins of Theileria (Schmuckli‐Maurer et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%