Importance of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (Swine Leukocyte Antigen) in Swine Health and Biomedical Research

Abstract

In pigs, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), or swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) complex, maps to Sus scrofa chromosome 7. It consists of three regions, the class I and class III regions mapping to 7p1.1 and the class II region mapping to 7q1.1. The swine MHC is divided by the centromere, which is unique among mammals studied to date. The SLA complexspans between 2.4 and 2.7 Mb, depending on haplotype, and encodes approximately 150 loci, with at least 120 genes predicted to be functional. Here we update the whole SLA complex based on the Sscrofa11.1 build and annotate the organization for all recognized SLA genes and their allelic sequences. We present SLA nomenclature and typing methods and discuss the expression of SLA proteins, as well as their role in antigen presentation and immune, disease, and vaccine responses. Finally, we explore the role of SLA genes in transplantation and xenotransplantation and their importance in swine biomedical models.

Genetic Analysis of Antibody Response to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Vaccination as an Indicator Trait for Reproductive Performance in Commercial Sows

“…Haplotypes in this region have also been previously significantly associated with production traits, such as average daily gain and backfat thickness in non-infected pigs ( Jung et al, 1989 ; Vaiman et al, 1998 ). The MHC region spans from around 23–26 Mb in the SSC 7 ( Hammer et al, 2020 ). Two of the main SNPs associated with S/P ratio, ASGA0032113 and H3GA0020505, were located at 25 Mb (MHC class II), while M1GA0009777 was located at 24 Mb (MHC class III).…”

“…The MHC region is well known for the presence of several immune-related genes with potential to be candidate causal genes associated with Ab response to PRRSV vaccination. The MHC class II harbors genes relating to peptide presentation of the adaptive immune system, such as swine leukocyte antigen ( SLA ) -DR , SLA-DQ , SLA-DM , and SLA-DO proteins; transporter-associated with antigen processing genes, such as ATP binding cassette subfamily B member transporter 1 ( TAP1 ) and 2 ( TAP2 ); and proteasomes, such as Proteasome 20S subunit beta 8 ( PSMB8 ) and 9 ( PSMB9 ) ( Hammer et al, 2020 ). Interestingly, SLA-DRA has been shown to affect production and immune traits in swine ( Lunney et al, 2009 ).…”

“…Haplotypes in this region have also been previously significantly associated with production traits, such as average daily gain and backfat thickness in non-infected pigs (Jung et al, 1989;Vaiman et al, 1998). The MHC region spans from around 23-26 Mb in the SSC 7 (Hammer et al, 2020). Two of the main SNPs associated with S/P ratio, ASGA0032113 and H3GA0020505, were located at FIGURE 4 | Simulated response to selection for reproductive performance after 10 generations based (indirect) or not (direct) on antibody response, measured as sample-to-positive (S/P) ratio, to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus vaccination.…”

Immunogenicity of a Dendrimer B2T Peptide Harboring a T-Cell Epitope From FMDV Non-structural Protein 3D

“…As in all FMDV natural hosts, the genetic background of individual pigs may differ. Thus, a pool of SLA alleles exists in the population and, as mentioned above, this polymorphism can contribute to the individual variability observed ( 38 ).…”

New Immunoinformatics Tools for Swine: Designing Epitope-Driven Vaccines, Predicting Vaccine Efficacy, and Making Vaccines on Demand

“…Improved resolution to four digits is needed to identify specific allele proteins (e.g., SLA-1 ∗ 0801, SLA-1 ∗ 0802). High-resolution and high-throughput methods have also been developed ( 37 ). Next generation sequencing is a widely used technology for HLA typing ( 38 , 39 ) and has been used for SLA typing in a few studies ( 40 , 41 ).…”