Strain Diversity in Major Surface Protein 2 Expression during Tick Transmission ofAnaplasma marginale

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Abstract
Specific major surface protein 2 (MSP2) variants are expressed byAnaplasma marginalewithin the tick salivary gland and, following transmission, are expressed during acute rickettsemia. In previous work, we have shown that a restricted pattern of MSP2 variants is expressed in the salivary glands ofDermacentor andersoniticks infected with the South Idaho strain ofA. marginale. Now we demonstrate that the identical restriction does not apply to two other strains ofA. marginale, and that different variants are also expressed when the same strain is transmitted by differentDermacentorspp. This indicates that antigenic diversity among strains is maintained in tick transmission and may be a significant constraint to MSP2 vaccine development.