We prepared rat monoclonal antibodies (mAb) specific for very large Plasmodium falciparum proteins to assist in their characterization. Hybridomas prepared from rats immunized with parasitized erythrocyte (PE) proteins of > 200 kDa exhibited two patterns of Western blot reactivity with PE SDS extracts: one represented by clone 41E11 (IgM, kappa), the other by done 12C11 (IgM, lambda). MAb 41E11 reacted by Western blotting with at least 15 antigens, most of which comigrated with antigens identified by the 33G2 human IgM mAb. The stage specificity of mAb 41E11 reactivity and indirect immunofluorescence (IFA) pattern closely resemble those previously described for antigens that share the EEXXEE sequence motif. Unlike mAb 33G2, MAb 41E11 immunoprecipitated a biosynthetically radiolabeled protein of 320 kDa. MAb 41E11 did not immunoprecipitate any cell surface I-125 proteins. MAb 12C11 reacted on Western blotting with a different group of malarial antigens of approximately 44, 95, 117, 145, and 310 kDa, as well as with some low-molecular-weight, uninfected erythrocyte antigens. MAb 12C11 did not immunoprecipitate any cell surface I-125 or biosynthetically labeled proteins. The 310-kDa antigen recognized by mAb 12C11 (denoted Ag 12A) does not correspond to PfEMP2 or the 320-kDa antigen recognized by mAbs 33G2 or 41E11. With trophozoites and more mature stages, fixed IFA reactivity of mAb 12C11 was at the parasite and in antigen aggregates in the host cell cytoplasm that extended to the PE plasma membrane. Indirect results suggest that Ag 12A does not correspond to cell surface-exposed PfEMP1 and is most likely a hitherto unidentified malarial protein.
