ANTIGENIC SPECIFICITIES OF SEVERAL INDIAN STOCKS OF TRYPANOSOMA-EVANSI BY WESTERN-BLOT-ANALYSIS

Western blotting was used in the analysis of major antigens in the who le cell lysate (WCL) preparations of 7 stocks of Trypanosoma evansi is olated from buffaloes, equids and camels from different localities of northern India. Most of the major polypeptides (in sodium dodecyl sulp hate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) were detected as major antige ns employing homologous as well as heterologous hyperimmune sera (HIS) . The total number of major antigens detected ranged between 17 to 30, most of which were in the M. W. range of 14.6 to 99.5. Homologous HIS detected more antigens in 5 stocks than the number by heterologous HI S. The observation in stock-3 and stock-7 was somewhat different, hete rologous HIS detecting more antigens than those by homologous HIS. Ant igenic profiles of the WCL did not show resemblance between any 2 of t he 7 stocks. Antigenic cross-reactivity of the most prominent polypept ide, that presumably represents the major variable surface glycoprotei ns (VSG) was very high indicating the possibility of single or a few i so-VAT (variable antigen type) population in these 7 stocks.