Structure and Organization of Genes for Sporozoite Surface Antigens
Abstract
The major surface antigen (circumsporozoite-protein) of the sporozoite stage of Plasmodium knowlesi has been cloned and characterized. The gene is notable for the presence of a 36 base pair unit repeated in tandem 12 times. These repeats may function at the DNA level in regulating gene expression and at the protein level in providing multiple copies of a single epitope (repitope) as part of a protein designed to evade and decoy the immune system.
- Publication:
-
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B
- Pub Date:
- November 1984
- DOI:
- 10.1098/rstb.1984.0114
- Bibcode:
- 1984RSPTB.307..129G