Identification and characterizations of a rhoptries neck protein 5 (BoRON5) in Babesia orientalis.

Abstract Babesiosis caused by Babesia orientalis is one of the most serious parasitic diseases of water buffalo in the central and south part of China. Rhoptry neck proteins (RONs) are very important protein components to form a complex moving junction (MJ) which mainly participate in the invasion processes in apicomplexan parasites. Aimed to the further investigation of the function of BoRON proteins in B. orientalis, in this study, BoRON5 was characterized. A truncated 921 bp fragment of BoRON5 with predicted antigenic epitopes was cloned and inserted into pSUMO expression vector. Recombinant protein rSUMO-BoRON5 was purified from Escherichia coli. and used to produce antisera in Kunming mice. rSUMO-BoRON5 showed strong immunosignals when blotted with the positive serum from B. orientalis-infected water buffalo. Antisera raised in Kunming mice against rSUMO-BoRON5 could detect the native BoRON5 in parasite lysates. Immuofluorescence assay showed that mice antisera of rSUMO-BoRON5 could detect merozoite in B. orientalis infected water buffalo erythrocytes. This study provides useful information for the further investigation of the BoRON5 function during B. orientalis invasion of water buffalo.