AlphaFold2 visualization of HAP2 protein  

( 3.3.26 )                                    Written by Gio Kim                          

Bovine babesiosis causes significant economic losses worldwide, ranging from $573.6 million to 3.24 billion. Finding a way to prevent this disease has been the work of many scientists throughout the years.

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Bovine babesiosis is a tick-borne disease that is caused by apicomplexan (part of a parasite microorganism group called Apicomplexa) parasites of the genus Babesia, mainly the Babesia bovis, B. bigemina, and B. divergens. B.bovis is the main culprit of this disease, while B. divergens is a zoonotic organism that is primarily responsible for human babesiosis.

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A key species for B.bovis is the Rhipicephalus microplus tick, where the microorganism travels into the salivary gland of the tick to infect cattle. Currently, more than 500 million cattle around the world are susceptible to this disease.

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This research builds upon prior studies, where scientists have found that a protein called HAP2 plays a key role in the reproduction of the parasite. This paper focuses on visualising the HAP2 protein. Using AlphaFold2, which is a AI trained to predict the structure of protiens based on a sequence of amino acids, Dr. Rahman and others were able to predict the structure that was superimposed with the HAP2 structures of C. reinhardtii and A. thaliana. Through this model, they were able to find 3 distinct structural domains within the protein, with each of them having unique shapes. Moreover, they were able to find that the sequence alignments among B. bovis, B. bigemina, B. microti, and B. divergens indicate that the B.bovis HAP2 has 47.7%, 24.3%, and 41.6% sequence similarity with the other parasites.

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Visualizing this protein is a promising start to finding a way to prevent the replication of B. bovis and similar organisms within cattle. With the visualization, industries can create new drugs to prevent such diseases. By saving more cattle, it has a profound impact on human health: it helps combat food insecurity, giving us a brighter future.

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You can read the full paper here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-91359-4