DLA-DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1 Alleles and Haplotypes in North American Gray Wolves

Abstract

The canine major histocompatibility complex contains highly polymorphic genes, many of which are critical in regulating immune response. Since domestic dogs evolved from Gray Wolves (Canis lupus), common DLA class II alleles should exist. Sequencing was used to characterize 175 Gray Wolves for DLA class II alleles, and data from 1856 dogs, covering 85 different breeds of mostly European origin, were available for comparison. Within wolves, 28 new alleles were identified, all occurring in at least 2 individuals. Three DLA-DRB1, 8 DLA-DQA1, and 6 DLA-DQB1 alleles also identified in dogs were present. Twenty-eight haplotypes were identified, of which 2 three-locus haplotypes, and many DLA-DQA1/DQB1 haplotypes, are also found in dogs. The wolves studied had relatively few dog DLA alleles and may therefore represent a remnant population descended from Asian wolves. The single European wolf included carried a haplotype found in both these North American wolves and in many dog breeds. Furthermore, one wolf DQB1 allele has been found in Shih Tzu, a breed of Asian origin. These data suggest that the wolf ancestors of Asian and European dogs may have had different gene pools, currently reflected in the DLA alleles present in dog breeds.

Progenitor Cells From the Explanted Heart Generate Immunocompatible Myocardium Within the Transplanted Donor Heart

“…The polymorphism of the dog leukocyte antigen (DLA)-DRB1 was analyzed 17,18. DLA-DRB1 was chosen because it represents the most highly polymorphic class II locus.…”

“…This is not surprising in view of the high degree of polymorphism of DRB1 17,18. The possibility of a PCR error was excluded by employing a proof-reading polymerase in the first and second PCR rounds.…”

Northwest passages: conservation genetics of Arctic Island wolves

“…Banks and Victoria Island shared one allele found in no other population (total frequency 1%, data not shown), but private alleles were not observed within any island sample. Major Histocompatibility Complex genes from Alaskan and Canadian wolves showed: greatest diversity with unique haplotypes in boreal forest populations; moderate diversity with no unique haplotypes in mainland barren-ground populations; and lowest diversity in Banks Island wolves (Kennedy et al 2007). Our own preliminary mtDNA sequencing revealed lower haplotype diversity in, and no haplotypes unique to the Arctic Islands (unpublished data).…”

MHC variability supports dog domestication from a large number of wolves: high diversity in Asia

“…To identify the alleles from heterozygous individuals, all heterozygotes were cloned using GeneJET PCR Cloning Kit (Fermentas, Burlington, Canada). All novel alleles were verified by a second independent analysis using another set of PCR primers (Kennedy et al, 2007a), to ensure that these alleles had not gone undetected in earlier studies because of primer mismatch (see Supplementary methods for detailed methodology).…”

“…The sequences included dogs mainly from Europe (Sarmiento and Storb, 1990;Murgia et al, 2006;Kennedy et al, 2007b), but also a lesser number of dogs from other regions (Runstadler et al, 2006) and wolves (Seddon and Ellegren, 2002;Kennedy et al, 2007a). To study phylogenetic relationships between the newly identified and previously published DLA alleles, a neighbor-joining tree was constructed for dog and wolf alleles with the software MEGA 4.1 (Tamura et al, 2007) using JukesCantor distances.…”