{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,19]],"date-time":"2026-05-19T20:44:19Z","timestamp":1779223459873,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,23]],"date-time":"2018-03-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1521763200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CONACyT-Ciencia Basica","award":["167129"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["167129"]}]},{"name":"PRODEP-REDES","award":["2016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016"]}]},{"name":"FOFIUAQ","award":["FNV-2016-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FNV-2016-06"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Veterinary Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Babesia bigemina is one of the most prevalent species causing bovine babesiosis around the world. Antigens involved in host cell invasion are vaccine targets for this disease but are largely unknown in this species. The invasion process of Babesia spp. into erythrocytes involves membrane proteins from the apical complex. A protein stored in the micronemes, called Micronemal Protein 1 (MIC-1), contains a sialic acid binding domain that participates in the invasion process of host cells and is a vaccine candidate in other apicomplexan parasites. It is not known if there is a homologous gene for mic-1 in B. bigemina. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the mic-1 gene homologue in Babesia bigemina. A gene was found with a microneme adhesive repeat (MAR) domain in the predicted amino acid sequence. Transcription was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Subsequently, antibodies against peptides containing conserved B-cell epitopes were used to confirm the expression of MIC-1 in intraerythrocytic merozoites. The presence of anti MIC-1 antibodies in cattle naturally infected with B. bigemina was determined and up to 97.4% of the cattle sera (113 out of 116) identified MIC-1 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Finally, antibodies against MIC-1 were able to block 70% merozoite invasion in-vitro.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/vetsci5020032","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,26]],"date-time":"2018-03-26T03:43:29Z","timestamp":1522035809000},"page":"32","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Immunomolecular Characterization of MIC-1, a Novel Antigen in Babesia bigemina, Which Contains Conserved and Immunodominant B-Cell Epitopes that Induce Neutralizing Antibodies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Diego","family":"Hern\u00e1ndez-Silva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology and Vaccines Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Uriel","family":"Valdez-Espinoza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology and Vaccines Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"},{"name":"Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Av. Universidad 3000, Edificio A, Delegacion Coyoacan, Col. Ciudad Universitaria, Cd. Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Miguel","family":"Mercado-Uriostegui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology and Vaccines Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gabriela","family":"Aguilar-Tipacam\u00fa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"C.A. Salud Animal y Microbiologia Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Ramos-Arag\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CENID-Parasitologia-INIFAP, Morelos 37915, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ruben","family":"Hern\u00e1ndez-Ortiz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CENID-Parasitologia-INIFAP, Morelos 37915, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Massaro","family":"Ueti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Animal Disease Research Unit, USDA-ARS, 3003 ADBF, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8892-6390","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan","family":"Mosqueda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology and Vaccines Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"},{"name":"C.A. Salud Animal y Microbiologia Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Av. de las Ciencias s\/n Col Juriquilla, Queretaro 76230, Mexico"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S247","DOI":"10.1017\/S0031182004005190","article-title":"Babesiosis of cattle","volume":"129","author":"Bock","year":"2004","journal-title":"Parasitology"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"292","article-title":"Molecular approaches to detect and study the organisms causing bovine tick borne diseases: babesiosis and anaplasmosis","volume":"4","author":"Lew","year":"2005","journal-title":"Afr. J. Biotechnol."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1218","DOI":"10.1126\/science.7355284","article-title":"Babesia bovis: continuous cultivation in a microaerophilous stationary phase culture","volume":"207","author":"Levy","year":"1980","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1788","DOI":"10.1016\/j.meegid.2012.07.004","article-title":"Babesia: A world emerging","volume":"12","author":"Schnittger","year":"2012","journal-title":"Infect. Genet. Evol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1007","DOI":"10.1016\/S0020-7519(98)00076-9","article-title":"Invited review Apical organelles and host-cell invasion by Apicomplexa","volume":"28","author":"Dubremetz","year":"1998","journal-title":"Int. J. Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vetpar.2006.01.037","article-title":"Erythrocyte invasion by Babesia parasites: current advances in the elucidation of the molecular interactions between the protozoan ligands and host receptors in the invasion stage","volume":"138","author":"Yokoyama","year":"2006","journal-title":"Vet. Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"961","DOI":"10.1083\/jcb.201206112","article-title":"The cellular and molecular basis for malaria parasite invasion of the human red blood cell","volume":"198","author":"Cowman","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Cell Biol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"567","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pt.2004.09.009","article-title":"Molecular and functional aspects of parasite invasion","volume":"20","author":"Soldati","year":"2004","journal-title":"Trends Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1111\/voxs.12137","article-title":"Receptor\u2013ligand interactions underlying RBC invasion in Babesia","volume":"10","author":"Lobo","year":"2015","journal-title":"ISBT Sci. Ser."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1007\/978-0-387-78267-6_2","article-title":"Receptor-ligand interaction and invasion: Microneme proteins in apicomplexans","volume":"47","author":"Carruthers","year":"2008","journal-title":"Subcell. Biochem."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1016\/S0166-6851(96)02773-9","article-title":"The MIC1 microneme protein of Toxoplasma gondii contains a duplicated receptor-like domain and binds to host cell surface","volume":"83","author":"Fourmaux","year":"1996","journal-title":"Mol. Biochem. Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"541","DOI":"10.1093\/glycob\/11.7.541","article-title":"Toxoplasma gondii micronemal protein MIC1 is a lactose-binding lectin","volume":"11","author":"Pereira","year":"2001","journal-title":"Glycobiology"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"563","DOI":"10.1083\/jcb.152.3.563","article-title":"Identification and characterization of an escorter for two secretory adhesins in Toxoplasma gondii","volume":"152","author":"Reiss","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Cell Biol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16720","DOI":"10.1074\/jbc.M111.325928","article-title":"Galactose Recognition by the Apicomplexan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii","volume":"287","author":"Marchant","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Biol. Chem."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"294","DOI":"10.1016\/j.parint.2010.03.004","article-title":"Babesia bovis expresses a neutralization-sensitive antigen that contains a microneme adhesive repeat (MAR) domain","volume":"59","author":"Silva","year":"2010","journal-title":"Parasitol. Int."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Mosqueda-Gualito, J.J. (2010). Extracci\u00f3n de \u00c1cidos Nucleicos de Hemopar\u00e1sitos. Diagn\u00f3stico de Enfermedades Parasitarias Selectas de Rumiantes, INIFAP."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bartlett, J.M.S., and Stirling, D. (2003). PCR Protocols, Springer.","DOI":"10.1385\/1592593844"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Walker, J.M. (2015). Protein Identification and Analysis Tools on the ExPASy Server. The Proteomics Protocols Handbook, Humana Press."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"953","DOI":"10.1038\/nprot.2007.131","article-title":"Locating proteins in the cell using TargetP, SignalP and related tools","volume":"2","author":"Emanuelsson","year":"2007","journal-title":"Nat. Protoc."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"567","DOI":"10.1006\/jmbi.2000.4315","article-title":"Predicting transmembrane protein topology with a hidden Markov model: application to complete genomes","volume":"305","author":"Krogh","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Mol. Biol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"D279","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gkv1344","article-title":"The Pfam protein families database: Towards a more sustainable future","volume":"44","author":"Finn","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nucleic Acids Res."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1002\/prot.21078","article-title":"Prediction of continuous B-cell epitopes in an antigen using recurrent neural network","volume":"65","author":"Saha","year":"2006","journal-title":"Proteins"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nicosia, G., Cutello, V., Bentley, P.J., and Timmis, J. (2004). BcePred: Prediction of Continuous B-Cell Epitopes in Antigenic Sequences Using Physico-chemical Properties. Artificial Immune Systems, Springer. Lecture Notes in Computer Science.","DOI":"10.1007\/b100486"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"D405","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gku938","article-title":"The immune epitope database (IEDB) 3.0","volume":"43","author":"Vita","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nucleic Acids Res."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1599","DOI":"10.1128\/IAI.70.3.1599-1603.2002","article-title":"Babesia bovis Merozoite Surface Antigen 1 and Rhoptry-Associated Protein 1 Are Expressed in Sporozoites, and Specific Antibodies Inhibit Sporozoite Attachment to Erythrocytes","volume":"70","author":"Mosqueda","year":"2002","journal-title":"Infect. Immun."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1016\/0166-6851(92)90129-8","article-title":"Neutralization-sensitive merozoite surface antigens of Babesia bovis encoded by members of a polymorphic gene family","volume":"55","author":"Hines","year":"1992","journal-title":"Mol. Biochem. Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"IBM Corp. (2013). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0, IBM."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2808","DOI":"10.1038\/sj.emboj.7601704","article-title":"Atomic resolution insight into host cell recognition by Toxoplasma gondii","volume":"26","author":"Blumenschein","year":"2007","journal-title":"EMBO J."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1128\/CVI.05433-11","article-title":"A New MIC1-MAG1 Recombinant Chimeric Antigen Can Be Used Instead of the Toxoplasma gondii Lysate Antigen in Serodiagnosis of Human Toxoplasmosis","volume":"19","author":"Ferra","year":"2012","journal-title":"Clin. Vaccine Immunol."},{"key":"ref_30","first-page":"51","article-title":"Estrategias gen\u00f3micas y moleculares para el control de la babesiosis bovina","volume":"3","author":"Alberto","year":"2012","journal-title":"Rev. Mex. Cienc. Pecu."}],"container-title":["Veterinary Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2306-7381\/5\/2\/32\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T14:58:16Z","timestamp":1760194696000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2306-7381\/5\/2\/32"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,23]]},"references-count":30,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]}},"alternative-id":["vetsci5020032"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/vetsci5020032","relation":{},"ISSN":["2306-7381"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2306-7381","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,23]]}}}