A group of Giardia lamblia variant-specific surface protein (VSP) genes with nearly identical 5′ regions

Yong min Yang, Rodney D. Adam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The surfaces of Giardia lamblia trophozoites contain one of a set of variant-specific surface proteins. The genes encoding these proteins are highly conserved at the 3′ terminus, but frequently demonstrate little similarity in the remainder of the coding region. This report describes a family of vsp genes highly similar to a repeat-containing vsp gene (vspC5) at the 5′ coding and flanking regions, but which diverge abruptly from vspC5 in the first repeat and do not themselves contain full copies of the repeat. This observation suggests the possibility that recombination among different vsp genes may have played a role in development of the vsp gene repertoire.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)69-74
Number of pages6
JournalMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology
Volume75
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 1995
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Antigenic variation
  • Gene family
  • Tandem repeat

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A group of Giardia lamblia variant-specific surface protein (VSP) genes with nearly identical 5′ regions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this