Sl. Stringer et al., GENES ENCODING ANTIGENIC SURFACE GLYCOPROTEINS IN PNEUMOCYSTIS FROM HUMANS, The Journal of eukaryotic microbiology, 40(6), 1993, pp. 821-826
Pneumocystis is a eukaryotic microbe that causes pneumocystosis, an AI
DS-associated pneumonia. Pneumocystosis also occurs in many other mamm
alian species, and animal-derived organisms have been extensively util
ized in Pneumocystis research. Pneumocystis from diverse hosts contain
a large glycoprotein (gpA/MSG) on the surface. Antibodies elicited ag
ainst gpA/MSG of Pneumocystis from humans sometimes cross-react with e
pitopes on proteins of similar size from Pneumocystis from other host
species. Here we report the isolation and partial sequence of two pres
umptive gpA/MSG genes from human-derived Pneumocystis. The cloned huma
n-derived Pneumocystis gpA/MSG genes and predicted peptides were diffe
rent from those previously isolated from Pneumocystis from rats and fe
rrets. The genome of human-derived Pneumocystis contained multiple cop
ies of sequences related to the two cloned gpA/MSG genes.