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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2001, p. 4200-4203, Vol. 39, No. 11
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.11.4200-4203.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Ehrlichia ruminantium Major Antigenic Protein Gene (map1) Variants Are Not Geographically Constrained and Show No Evidence of Having Evolved under Positive Selection Pressure

M. T. E. P. Allsopp,^1,* C. M. Dorfling,^1, J. C. Maillard,² A. Bensaid,³ D. T. Haydon,⁴ H. van Heerden,¹ and B. A. Allsopp¹

Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa¹; CIRAD-EMVT, 34398-Montpellier Cedex 05, France²; CIRAD-EMVT, BP 515, Point-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies³; and Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Easter Bush, Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland EH25 9RG, United Kingdom⁴

Received 2 April 2001/Returned for modification 23 July 2001/Accepted 2 September 2001

In a search for tools to distinguish antigenic variants of Ehrlichia ruminantium, we sequenced the major antigenic protein genes (map1 genes) of 21 different isolates and found that the sequence polymorphisms were too great to permit the design of probes which could be used as markers for immunogenicity. Phylogenetic comparison of the 21 deduced MAP1 sequences plus another 9 sequences which had been previously published did not reveal any geographic clustering among the isolates. Maximum likelihood analysis of codon and amino acid changes over the phylogeny provided no statistical evidence that the gene is under positive selection pressure, suggesting that it may not be important for the evasion of host immune responses.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Private Bag X5, Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa. Phone: 27 12 5299205. Fax: 27 12 5299431. E-mail: maria{at}ovisun.ovi.ac.za.

Present address: Institute of Pathology, Department of Human Genetics, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2001, p. 4200-4203, Vol. 39, No. 11
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.11.4200-4203.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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