D. Rangarajan et al., THE GENE B PROTEIN LOCALIZES TO THE SURFACE OF LEISHMANIA-MAJOR PARASITES IN THE ABSENCE OF METACYCLIC STAGE LIPOPHOSPHOGLYCAN, Journal of Cell Science, 108, 1995, pp. 3359-3366
The stage specific Gene B protein (GBP) of Leishmania major localises
to the surface of infective metacyclic parasites, where it associates
with the developmentally regulated surface glycoconjugate, lipophospho
glycan (LPG). This association has been proposed to aid maintenance of
GBP on the parasite surface. In this paper, we show that the abundanc
e of GBP on the extracellular metacyclic cell surface is in the order
of 100,000 copies per cell. This level of expression is comparable to
that seen in the intracellular amastigote stage, in which GBP is also
localised to the surface, despite the lack of metacyclic stage specifi
c LPG. Furthermore GBP expressed from an episome in avirulent parasite
s, which are unable to synthesise metacyclic LPG or endogenous GBP, al
so localises to the parasite surface. These data demonstrate that GBP
can maintain a surface localisation in the absence of metacyclic LPG,
suggesting that it is able to associate with other glycoconjugates on
the surface of infective parasites.