ISOLATE-SPECIFIC PARASITE ANTIGENS OF THE BABESIA-BOVIS-INFECTED ERYTHROCYTE SURFACE

Bovine erythrocytes taken from in vitro cultures of Babesia bovis parasites from Mexico and the United States were assayed for the presence of new epitopes on the erythrocyte surface. New surface-exposed epitopes were detected by means of a whole-cell antigen capture assay. These epitopes were subsequently demonstrated only on infected erythrocytes by immunofluorescence staining of intact, living cells. Parasite-synthesized antigens were identified on each isolate using a surface-specific immunoprecipitation technique to analyze metabolically-labeled infected erythrocytes. In the Mexico isolate these antigens were 120 kDa and 107 kDa, whereas in the United States isolate polypeptides of 135, 120 and 107 kDa were detected. In each of these assays, reaction of immune sera with the infected erythrocyte surface was found to be isolate-specific.