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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Unpredictable Past Of Plasmodium Vivax Revealed In Its Genome, Stephen M. Rich
The Unpredictable Past Of Plasmodium Vivax Revealed In Its Genome, Stephen M. Rich
Stephen M. Rich
Until quite recently, very little information has been available about the genome content and structure of parasitic protozoa. This inadequacy has been rectified by the advent of high-throughput strategies that permit sequencing of whole genomes and enhanced computational capacities that render this information tractable. The current list of complete or near-complete genomes includes some of the greatest scourges of humans and their domesticated companions. Among these miscreants are several members of the genus Plasmodium, the agents of malaria. Scores of species of Plasmodium have been described and comprise pathogens of every major group of terrestrial vertebrates. At present, no less …
Antigen Polymorphism In Borrelia Hermsii, A Clonal Pathogenic Bacterium, Stephen M. Rich, Stanley A. Sawyer, Alan G. Barbour
Antigen Polymorphism In Borrelia Hermsii, A Clonal Pathogenic Bacterium, Stephen M. Rich, Stanley A. Sawyer, Alan G. Barbour
Stephen M. Rich
The relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia hermsii, escapes immune selection by alternating expression of surface lipoprotein alleles. The switch results from a duplicative transposition of one of several surface lipoprotein-encoding nucleotide sequences into the singular expression site. These nucleotide sequences constitute a large gene family whose diversity originated, in some cases, before the major divergences of Borrelia species. We have examined the B. hermsii vsp subfamily of alleles, which are carried on linear plasmids within each cell and maintained in several diverse copies as an antigenic archive. Each encodes a distinct serotype-specific protein. We sequenced more than 90% of the alleles …