Allelic Dimorphism of the Plasmodium falciparum Erythrocyte Binding Antigen-175 (EBA-175) Gene in the South-east of Iran

Background: the erythrocyte binding antigen 175 kda (eba-175) gene is located on chromosome 7. it encodes protein that binds to specific receptor glycophorin a on the erythrocyte surface during inva­sion. it has a dimorphic nature (fcr3 and camp). this study was designed to determine the distribu­tion of eba-175 alleles of plasmodium falciparum in the southeast of iranmethods: we used the nested pcr method with specific primers, which improves the two fragments of the eba-175 gene. sixty eight microscopically positive blood samples were collected from the in­fected falciparum malaria subjects in the southeast of iran.results: in this study which marks the first one in iran, camp strains (714 bp) and fcr-3 strains (795 bp) were found in 14 (37.8%) and 23 (62.2%) in the originally iranian subjects and in 10 (32.3%) and 19 (61.3%) pakistani infected migrants respectively. two migrant cases (6.4%) had mix camp/fcr-3 infection.conclusion: the two fragments of dimorphic eba-175 gene were observed and the fcr-3 allele was more prevalent in iran. there was no significant correlation between one of the eba-175 alleles and the subject group in the mentioned region. this distributional pattern should be considered in design­ing to control p. falciparum malaria in the region