Abstract

East coast fever (ECF) is a severe lymphoproliferative disease of cattle caused by the intracellular protozoan Theileria parva from the phylum Apicomplexa. Gene homologs encoding antigens from other apicomplexan parasites constitute a source of vaccine candidate antigens. The ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA) protein is a vaccine candidate for malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and should be evaluated for inclusion in a subunit vaccine against ECF. Here we isolated and sequenced the T. parva RESA2 homolog and compared it to that of the malaria parasite, P. falciparum. The deduced amino acid sequence of the T. parva RESA2 gene is very similar to the P. falciparum RESA protein (38% identity).

Key words: Theileria parva, vaccine, ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen 2 (RESA2), apicomplexan antigens, homolog screen.