Putative glutamate-gated chloride channels from Onchocerca volvulus

• Main Author: Halstead, Meredith
• Other Authors: Beech, Robin (advisor)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 2002
• Subjects: Onchocerca volvulus.; Chloride channels.; Onchocerciasis.; Ivermectin.; Drug resistance.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=29439

Onchocerca volvulus, a filarial nematode, is the causative agent of onchocerciasis. === O. volvulus is a human parasite with no animal model host and is endemic in the tropics. O. volvulus material is scarce and must be conserved as part of the Onchocerciasis Control Program. A genomic library was constructed to provide a substantial source of renewable genetic material, in place of original parasite DNA. === Currently there is only one glutamate-gated chloride channel that has been sequenced from O. volvulus, but this has not yet been characterized. This GluClx partial cDNA sequence isolated by Cully et al., 1997, may be found in GenBank, accession number U59745. Specific primers were designed to amplify this gene from the genomic library. A fragment of this gene was isolated but the primers were non-specific, amplifying genes in addition to GluClx. === A motif is a short recognition sequence within a protein that may allow the modification of the protein. The cysteine loop in the N-terminal of all the ligand-gated ion channels is interesting because it contains the neurotransmitter-gated ion channel signature sequence. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)