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Ehrlichia ruminantium is a tick-transmitted rickettsial pathogen, which causes heartwater or cowdriosis in wild and domestic ruminants. A dominant antibody response of animals infected with E. ruminantium is directed against the outer membrane protein MAP1 (major antigenic protein 1). Part of the locus containing map1 has been characterized and consists of four map1 paralogs, designated map1-2, map1-1, map1 and map1+1, indicating that map1 is encoded by a multigene family. The purpose of this study was to determine the total number of map1 paralogs and their transcriptional activities. Using genome walking and data from an ongoing E. ruminantium genome sequencing project at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, we found 16 paralogs of the map1 gene tandemly arranged in a 25 kb region of the E. ruminantium genome. The map1 multigene family is downstream of a hypothetical transcriptional …