Primary structure of the merozoite surface antigen 1 of Plasmodium vivax reveals sequences conserved between different Plasmodium species.

Merozoite surface antigen 1 (MSA1) of several species of plasmodia has been shown to be a promising candidate for a vaccine directed against the asexual blood stages of malaria. We report the cloning and characterization of the MSA1 gene of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. This gene, which we call Pv200, encodes a polypeptide of 1726 amino acids and displays features described for MSA1 genes of other species, such as signal peptide and anchoring sequences, conserved cysteine residues, number of potential N-glycosylation sites, and repeats consisting here of 23 glutamine residues in a row. When the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the MSA1 of P. vivax are compared to those of another human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and to those of the rodent parasite Plasmodium yoelii, 10 regions of high amino acid similarity are observed despite the very different dG + dC contents of the corresponding genes. All of the interspecies conserved regions reside within the conserved or semiconserved blocks delimited by the sequences of different alleles of the MSA1 gene of P. falciparum.