Gene Cloning of Iranian Leishmania major Mannose-1-Phosphate Guanyltransferase

Background: Leishmania is an obligatory intracellular protozoan parasite, which infects human be­ings when infected sand fly vector takes a blood meal. Most efforts are towards designing an effective vaccine to prevent leishmaniasis. In this way, development of candidate antigen for vaccine has spe­cial im­portant. In this study, we cloned mannose-1-phosphate guanyltransferase gene of Iranian L .major in pET32a expression vector. Methods: Primers based on L. major mannose-1-phosphate guanyltransferase sequence gene was de­signed and synthesized. DNA of Leishmania promastigotes was extracted and PCR reaction was done. PCR product was cloned into pTZ57R and sub cloned into pET32a expression vector. Results: Recombinant plasmid containing 1140 bp as L. major mannose-1-phosphate guanyltrans­ferase gene was extracted and confirmed by restriction analysis. PCR product was sequenced and de­posited to GenBank. There were some differences in amino acid sequences between Iranian L. major mannose-1-phosphate guanyltransferase and others previously accepted in GenBank Conclusion: We amplified and cloned Iranian L. major mannose-1-phosphate guanyltransferase suc­cessfully.