LITOMOSOIDES-CARINII MICROFILARIAL SHEATHS - PARTIAL AMINO-ACID-SEQUENCES OF SEVERAL MAJOR POLYPEPTIDE CONSTITUENTS

Isolated sheaths from Litomosoides carinii microfilariae were disintegrated by reduction with dithiothreitol and were C-14-carboxymethylated. Five major sheath proteins thus solubilized were purified by size exclusion chromatography and reversed-phase HPLC (rpHPLC). Proteolytic fragments of complete sheaths and of the single sheath proteins were isolated by rpHPLC and were N-terminally sequenced. a library of 27 partial sheath polypeptide sequences was thus established, 21 of which could be assigned to three L. carinii sheath structural genes (shp1,2, and 3/3a) isolated on the basis of this and of previous amino acid sequence information. The remaining peptides document the presence of at least one additional major sheath constituent.