title: Polymorphism study of rhoptry associated membrane antigen (RAMA) gene of Plasmodium falciparum--a putative vaccine candidate.
abstract: The antigenic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum is one of the major obstacles to antimalarial vaccine development. Thus, it becomes obvious to search for a protein that is fairly conserved and is necessary for the parasite to survive in the host cell. Rhoptry associated membrane antigen (RAMA) plays a potential role in parasite biology and invasion. The C-terminal end of RAMA is shown to have protective immune responses and binds to the erythrocyte membrane. In this work, we have studied the polymorphism of RAMA gene in the C-terminal end from 1525 to 3196 nucleotide (nt) in 230 samples. The presence of few variants suggests RAMA to be under a balancing selection. The above criterion of restricted antigenic diversity and a protective immune response towards the C-terminal end makes RAMA a strong vaccine candidate.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Sciences, Nalco Square, Bhubaneswar 751023, India.
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kar
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Dash
authors.forename: Prakash C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Supakar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C065352:rhoptry associated protein, Plasmodium