title: Babesia gibsoni rhoptry-associated protein 1 and its potential use as a diagnostic antigen.
abstract: A cDNA encoding the rhoptry-associated protein 1 (RAP-1) homologue was obtained by immunoscreening an expression library prepared from Babesia gibsoni merozoite mRNA. The complete nucleotide sequence of the gene was 1740bp. Computer analysis suggested that the sequence contains an open reading frame of 1425bp encoding an expected protein with a molecular weight of 52kDa. Based on the sequence similarity, this putative protein was designated as the B. gibsoni RAP-1 (BgRAP-1). The BgRAP-1 gene was expressed in the Escherichia coli BL21 strain, and the recombinant BgRAP-1 was used as the antigen in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results can differentiate between the B. gibsoni-infected dog sera and the Babesia canis infected dog sera or the normal dog sera. Furthermore, the antibody response against the recombinant protein was maintained during the chronic stage of infection, indicating that the recombinant BgRAP-1 protein might be a useful diagnostic antigen for the detection of antibodies to B. gibsoni infection in dogs.
authors.affiliation: National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
authors.forename: Jinlin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Honglin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.forename: Kozo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujisaki
authors.forename: Xuenan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xuan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology*; D004285:Dogs; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect / Q000662:veterinary; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C097551:rhoptry-associated protein-1, Babesia