THE PUTATIVELY PROTECTIVE ONCHOCERCA-VOLVULUS NEURONAL PROTEIN E1 IS A MEMBER OF THE DEATH DOMAIN PROTEIN FAMILY

Here we show that E1, an ankyrin-related, potentially protective, neur onal protein of the human filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulas contai ns a death domain (DD), most similar to that of human Mort1/FADD (39% identity). In addition, sequence comparison of E1 to its homologue fro m Litomosoides sigmodontis and to Caenorhabditis elegans ankyrin defin es two further putative functional domains, One represents the end of the spectrin-binding domain of ankyrins, the other an unique domain, m ost highly conserved between these nematodes, containing a calpain seq uence motif, Thus, El may be involved in apoptosis, raising the possib ility that protection against this parasitic helminth may be induced b y apoptotic processes.