Webb J R, Button L L, McMaster W R
Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Mol Biochem Parasitol. 1991 Oct;48(2):173-84. doi: 10.1016/0166-6851(91)90113-k.
The major surface glycoprotein of Leishmania (GP63) is present on all known species of Leishmania and likely plays an integral role during the infection of macrophages in the mammalian host. To identify regions of GP63 which may be of functional significance, the nucleotide sequence of a gene encoding GP63 of Leishmania donovani was determined and compared to the sequences reported for GP63 genes of Leishmania major and Leishmania chagasi. The GP63 nucleotide and predicted protein sequence was highly conserved among the 3 species despite their diverse geographical distribution. L. donovani GP63 is encoded by a multigene family and the gene locus contains at least 7 tandemly repeated genes and at least 3 genes which are dispersed from the tandem array. In addition, polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analyses demonstrated that there was size heterogeneity within the pro-peptide coding regions of the multiple GP63 genes of L. donovani and that such genes were expressed concurrently in the promastigote life stage.
利什曼原虫的主要表面糖蛋白（GP63）存在于所有已知的利什曼原虫物种中，并且在哺乳动物宿主巨噬细胞感染过程中可能发挥不可或缺的作用。为了鉴定GP63中可能具有功能意义的区域，测定了编码杜氏利什曼原虫GP63的基因的核苷酸序列，并将其与已报道的硕大利什曼原虫和恰加斯利什曼原虫的GP63基因序列进行比较。尽管这3个物种的地理分布不同，但GP63的核苷酸和预测的蛋白质序列在它们之间高度保守。杜氏利什曼原虫GP63由一个多基因家族编码，该基因座包含至少7个串联重复基因和至少3个从串联阵列中分散出来的基因。此外，聚合酶链反应和Southern印迹分析表明，杜氏利什曼原虫多个GP63基因的前肽编码区域内存在大小异质性，并且这些基因在前鞭毛体生命阶段同时表达。
