NUCLEIC ACIDS, PROTEINS, AND METHODS OF USE OF GRANULOCYTIC ERHLICHIA

摘要

Nucleic acids encoding eleven different proteins of granulocytic erhlichia (GE), a tick-borne intracellular bacteria, have been isolated and sequenced completely. These DNAs were isolated as immunoreactive clones from a Lambda Zap II genomic library of GE DNA purified from infected HL60 cells. Three of the clones, E8, E80, and E46, contain open reading frames for four highly homologous proteins which appear to be part of a multigene family resembling the MSP-2 gene family of Anaplasma marginale. One clone, B3, contained a gene encoding the heat shock (70) protein. The other clones (W20, E74, and E82) contain open reading frames for proteins which have some homology to other bacterial proteins present in the nucleotide and protein databases. These and other GE antigens identified by immunoscreening of the genomic library are potentially useful as diagnostic reagents and vaccine candidates for GE.