Disease relevance of msp3

• In Anaplasma marginale pseudogenes for two antigenically variable gene families, msp2 and msp3, appear in concert [1].
• The A. marginale msp3 gene msp3-12 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli [2].
• These results indicate that MSP3 may share cross-reactive epitopes with antigens found in A. ovis and some Ehrlichia spp [3].

High impact information on msp3

• Each of the msp3 pseudogenes encodes a unique central variable region (CVR) flanked by conserved 5' and 3' regions [4].
• Changes in the CVR of the expressed msp3, concomitant with invariance of the pseudogenes, indicate that expression site variation is generated using gene conversion [4].
• Importantly, msp3 contains amino acid blocks related to another polymorphic multigene family product, MSP2 [2].
• Sequence analysis of three unique msp3 genes, msp3-12, msp3-11, and msp3-19, revealed both conserved and variant regions within the open reading frames [2].
• The specificity of this antigen in detecting infected cattle as well as the conservation of MSP3 between strains of Anaplasma marginale was evaluated by using immunoblots of A. marginale proteins separated by one- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoreses [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of msp3

• Evaluation of Anaplasma marginale major surface protein 3 (MSP3) as a diagnostic test antigen [3].

References