The merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2) gene of Plasmodium falciparum from a Thai isolate.

The merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2) of Plasmodium falciparum was a malaria vaccine candidate. The gene encoding MSP2 of a Thai isolate was amplified by polymerase chain reaction followed by subcloning into a phagemid vector and sequencing. Sequence alignment with other previously published sequences revealed that the MSP2 allele in this isolate belonged to FC27 allelic family. The central variable sequence of the MSP2 allele in this study was related to an allele from Indonesia. The flanking sequences of the variable region were highly conserved.