Echinococcus multilocularis: developmental stage-specific expression of Antigen B 8-kDa-subunits

Antigen B (AgB) initially found in hydatid cyst fluid of Echinococcus granulosus is a polymeric lipoprotein of 160 kDa, and is an aggregate of several different but homologous small proteins with approximately 8 kDa. Four genes encoding these 8-kDa-subunits have been identified from E. granulosus. In this study we isolated five genes encoding 8-kDa-subunits of AgB from Echinococcus multilocularis. Sequence comparison of isolated cDNA clones demonstrated that one of these five clones was completely identical to EmAgB8/1 which had been isolated previously by our group, and three of them were 94.5, 90.8, and 91.9% homologous to E. granulosus antigen B 8-kDa subunit genes, EgAgB8/2, EgAgB8/3, and EgAgB8/4, respectively. The remaining clone shared 51-58% homology with the nucleotide sequences of AgB genes. Gene-specific RT-PCR and Western blot analyses revealed that these genes were expressed in a developmentally regulated manner in E. multilocularis vesicles, protoscoleces, and immature adult worms. Possible functions of different expression manners are also discussed.