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Antigen-presenting genes and genomic copy number variations in the Tasmanian devil MHC

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posted on 2023-05-17, 11:59 authored by Cheng, Y, Stuart, A, Morris, K, Taylor, R, Siddle, HV, Deakin, JE, Menna JonesMenna Jones, Amemiya, CT, Belov, K
Background The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is currently under threat of extinction due to an unusual fatal contagious cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). DFTD is caused by a clonal tumour cell line that is transmitted between unrelated individuals as an allograft without triggering immune rejection due to low levels of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) diversity in Tasmanian devils. Results Here we report the characterization of the genomic regions encompassing MHC Class I and Class II genes in the Tasmanian devil. Four genomic regions approximately 960 kb in length were assembled and annotated using BAC contigs and physically mapped to devil Chromosome 4q. 34 genes and pseudogenes were identified, including five Class I and four Class II loci. Interestingly, when two haplotypes from two individuals were compared, three genomic copy number variants with sizes ranging from 1.6 to 17 kb were observed within the classical Class I gene region. One deletion is particularly important as it turns a Class Ia gene into a pseudogene in one of the haplotypes. This deletion explains the previously observed variation in the Class I allelic number between individuals. The frequency of this deletion is highest in the northwestern devil population and lowest in southeastern areas. Conclusions The third sequenced marsupial MHC provides insights into the evolution of this dynamic genomic region among the diverse marsupial species. The two sequenced devil MHC haplotypes revealed three copy number variations that are likely to significantly affect immune response and suggest that future work should focus on the role of copy number variations in disease susceptibility in this species.

History

Publication title

BMC Genomics

Volume

13

Article number

87

Number

87

Pagination

1-13

ISSN

1471-2164

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Biomed Central Ltd

Place of publication

236 Gray's Inn Rd, London, WC1X 8HB, England

Rights statement

© 2012 Cheng et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Terrestrial biodiversity

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