Variable and Variant Protein Multigene Families in Babesia bovis Persistence

Evolution in multigene families

We now know a lot about the dynamics of nucleotide substitutions within existing genes, but we’ve neglected one key component of molecular evolution. We haven’t talked about where new genes come from. It’s important to understand this phenomenon because, after all, new metabolic functions are likely to arise only when there are new genes that can perform them. It’s not likely that an existing g...

An outbreak of Babesia bovis infection in cattle and its control

Expression and strain variation of the novel “small open reading frame” (smorf) multigene family in Babesia bovis

Small open reading frame (smorf) genes comprise the second largest Babesia bovis multigene family. All known 44 variant smorf genes are located in close chromosomal proximity to ves1 genes, which encode proteins that mediate cytoadhesion and contribute to immune evasion. In this study, we characterised the general topology of smorf genes and investigated the gene repertoire, transcriptional pro...

Multigene Families: Evolution

Groups of genes showing similarity with each other are referred to as a gene family, arising from wholesale or partial gene duplication. The clustering of functionally related members of a gene family reflects their common ancestry and subsequent duplication and divergence. It has been speculated that gene duplication is essential for the creation of major evolutionary novelty. Genome projects ...

Immune control of Babesia bovis infection.

Babesia bovis causes an acute and often fatal infection in adult cattle, which if resolved, leads to a state of persistent infection in otherwise clinically healthy cattle. Persistently infected cattle are generally resistant to reinfection with related parasite strains, and this resistance in the face of infection is termed concomitant immunity. Young animals are generally more resistant than ...