Plasmodium falciparum Variant Surface Antigen Expression Patterns during Malaria
Figure 5
(A–D) Each DBLα sequence was assigned to one of six sequence groups (Figure 3). The proportion of clones that fell into each of the six groups was calculated separately for genomic clones (A) and cDNA clones (C). (A) includes the distribution of sequences from the 3D7 genome (right). (B) and (D) show for each isolate the percent of genomic DNA (B) or cDNA clones (D) corresponding to the three most dominantly cloned genomic or cDNA sequences from that isolate. Isolates are ordered left to right according to the overall proportion of cys2 clones isolated from cDNA. Underlined ID numbers correspond to children with severe malaria.
(E) Northern blots of total RNA from each of the parasite isolates. Blots were hybridized to a generic var exon 2 probe, varc, corresponding to a conserved region within all var genes. The position of var genes expressed by the laboratory parasite line Palo Alto is indicated by lines to the left of each lane. These are approximately 9 kb and 11 kb in length.
(F) The VSA antibody repertoire carried at the time of acute disease by each patient. The y-axis shows the number of a panel of six parasite isolates that were recognised by the acute plasma from each child.