Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY
Volume 34, Issue 11, Pages 1229-1236Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2004.07.003
Keywords
Babesia bigemina; sexual stages; Boophilus microplus; in vitro culture
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Babesia bigemina, a causative agent of bovine babesiosis, is transmitted from one bovine to another only by infected ticks. The life cycle of B. bigemina includes a sexual phase in the tick host; however, molecules from sexual stages of any Babesia species have not been characterized. This is the first report of the induction of sexual stages of any Babesia species in vitro, free of tick antigens. Intraerythrocytic parasites were cultured in vitro for 20 It using an induction medium. Extraerythrocytic parasites were first seen 3 h post induction; elongated stages with long projections appeared at 6 h post induction and by 9 h they paired and fused to form larger stages. Round zygotes appeared 20 h post induction. Moreover, by using Percoll gradients, sexual stages were purified free of contaminating intraerythrocytic stages. Purified parasites were used to generate polyclonal antibodies, which specifically bound to antigens expressed in sexual stages induced in vitro, but not to antigens expressed in intraerythrocytic stages. Importantly, these antibodies specifically identified sexual stages from midguts of female Boophilus microplus ticks fed on infected cattle. (C) 2004 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available