Van der Ploeg L H
Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
New Biol. 1991 Apr;3(4):324-30.
Antigenic variation of African trypanosomes results from the controlled expression of a single variant cell-surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene from a repertoire of about 1,000 genes. The transcription of the VSG genes occurs uniquely at telomeres, where the expressed VSG gene is part of a large polycistronic transcription unit that appears to be transcribed by a specialized RNA polymerase. Recent developments that enhanced our understanding of the control of VSG gene expression and of the mechanisms of antigenic variation are discussed in this review.
非洲锥虫的抗原变异源于从大约1000个基因组成的库中受控表达单个可变细胞表面糖蛋白（VSG）基因。VSG基因的转录仅发生在端粒处，其中表达的VSG基因是一个大型多顺反子转录单元的一部分，该转录单元似乎由一种特殊的RNA聚合酶转录。本文综述了近期有助于我们深入理解VSG基因表达调控及抗原变异机制的进展。
