Alignment of amino acids sequences of the SmTAL family.

<p>Helix-loop-helix EF-hand domains (Pfam00036) are indicated. The canonical aspartic acid residues at the start of the loop are denoted D on black background. Residues in the dynein light chain domain (EMBL/EBI IPR001372) are shaded grey. Alignment was performed using Clustal W.</p

Antibody responses to SmTAL1, SmTAL3 and SmTAL5 in the <i>S. mansoni</i> infected cohort.

<p>Recombinant SmTAL1, 3 and 5 were used in ELISA to measure antigen-specific IgE (<b>A</b>) or IgG4 (<b>B</b>) before and after praziquantel treatment in 200 males infected with <i>S. mansoni</i>. Only individuals whose levels exceeded the seropositive threshold (mean+3xSD uninfected controls) for each response are graphed. For the whole cohort, the prevalence of each response (<b>C</b>) is shown in 5 age groups, 7–9 (n = 36), 10–14 (n = 43), 15–24 (n = 35), 25–34 (n = 43) and 35–60 (n = 43) Shown is % seropositive for each group after treatment +95% confidence intervals.</p

Electrophoresis of purified SmTAL proteins.

<p>2 µg of each of the indicated proteins was run under reducing conditions on a 4–12% gradient SDS-PAGE gel and stained with Coomassie blue.</p

Transcription profiles of SmTALs.

<p>Profiles from the <i>S. mansoni</i> lifecycle microarray data available via Array express (31) under the experimental accession number E-MEXP-2094. Values are mean normalized fluorescence units ± sem. In primate infections, larvae remain in the skin for 2–5 days (Wilson et al. 1990). In the figure cercariae to 3 d schistosomula are denoted “skin stage”.</p

Expression of SmTAL4 in cercarial tail only.

<p>For PCR analysis (<b>A</b>), total RNA from isolated from heads (H) and tails (T) after mechanical separation and used to prepare cDNA for use with specific primers to generate amplicons for Sm ß-actin (203 bp), SmTAL4 (152 bp), SmTAL5(228 bp) and SmTAL13(206 bp). Products were separated on a 2% agarose gel and detected with ethidium bromide. For immunostaining (<b>B</b>) 8 µ sections of frozen sections of whole cercariae were fixed and stained with rat anti-SmTAL4 antiserum and TRITC -anti-rat antibody (red). Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). In the negative control (insert) anti- SmTAL4 antiserum was pre-absorbed with recombinant SmTAL4.</p