Fr. Rurangirwa et al., Strain diversity in major surface protein 2 expression during tick transmission of Anaplasma marginale, INFEC IMMUN, 68(5), 2000, pp. 3023-3027
Specific major surface protein 2 (MSP2) variants are expressed by Anaplasma
marginale within the tick salivary gland and, following transmission, are
expressed during acute rickettsemia. In previous work, we have shown that a
restricted pattern of MSP2 variants is expressed in the salivary glands of
Dermacentor andersoni ticks infected with the South Idaho strain of A. mar
ginale. Now we demonstrate that the identical restriction does not apply to
two other strains of A. marginale, and that different variants are also ex
pressed when the same strain is transmitted by different Dermacentor spp. T
his indicates that antigenic diversity among strains is maintained in tick
transmission and may be a significant constraint to MSP2 vaccine developmen
t.