Sequence and expression of a major egg antigen from Schistosoma mansoni. Homologies to heat shock proteins and alpha-crystallins.

One of the major proteins of eggs and miracidia (p40) of Schistosoma mansoni has an apparent molecular weight of 40,000 and elicits a strong immune response in over 90% of patients. The antigen consists of a family of at least four near identical proteins, probably encoded by a multi-gene family, and expression of the p40 polypeptides is differentially regulated around the parasite's life cycle. We have isolated and sequenced cDNA clones encoding two variants of the antigen and expressed one p40 clone in Escherichia coli. The fusion protein elicits antibodies which immunoprecipitate p40 and recognise antigens of identical sizes in S. haematobium and S. bovis. The open reading frame encoding this antigen specifies a protein which shares a block of sequence homology with alpha-crystallins and Drosophila small heat shock proteins.