Molecular characterization of swine leukocyte antigen gene diversity in purebred Pietrain pigs

Abstract

The porcine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) harbors the highly polymorphic swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) class I and II gene clusters encoding glycoproteins that present antigenic peptides to T cells in the adaptive immune response. In Austria, the majority of commercial pigs are F 2 descendants of F 1 Large White/Landrace hybrids paired with Pietrain boars. Therefore, the repertoire of SLA alleles and haplotypes present in Pietrain pigs has an important influence on that of their descendants. In this study, we characterized the SLA class I ( SLA-1 , SLA-2 , SLA-3 ) and class II ( SLA-DRB1 , SLA-DQB1 , SLA-DQA ) genes of 27 purebred Pietrain pigs using a combination of the high-resolution sequence-based typing (SBT) method and a low-resolution (Lr) PCR-based method using allele-group, sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP). A total of 15 class I and 13 class II haplotypes were identified in the studied cohort. The most common SLA class I haplotype Lr-43.0 ( SLA-1 *11XX- SLA-3 *04XX- SLA-2 *04XX) was identified in 11 animals with a frequency of 20%. For SLA class II, the most prevalent haplotype, Lr-0.14 [ SLA-DRB1 *0901- SLA-DQB1 *0801- SLA-DQA *03XX], was found in 14 animals with a frequency of 26%. Two class II haplotypes, tentatively designated as Lr-Pie-0.1 [ SLA-DRB1 *01XX/be01/ha04- SLA-DQB1 *05XX- SLA - DQA*blank] and Lr-Pie-0.2 [ SLA-DRB1 *06XX- SLA-DQB1 *03XX- SLA-DQA *03XX], appeared to be novel and have never been reported so far in other pig populations. We showed that SLA genotyping using PCR-SSP-based assays represents a rapid and cost-effective way to study SLA diversity in outbred commercial pigs and may facilitate the development of more effective vaccines or identification of disease-resistant pigs in the context of SLA antigens to improve overall swine health.

Swine Leukocyte Antigen Diversity in Canadian Specific Pathogen-Free Yorkshire and Landrace Pigs

“…No novel class II haplotypes were identified in SPF Yorkshire and Landrace pigs. Hp-0.23 was the most common SLA class II haplotype in this study and was shared by several other pig populations, including Microminipigs, the IU-pig model, Landrace × Yorkshire, Guizhou miniature pigs, Korean native pigs, Big pigs, German purebred Landrace, and Pietrain pigs (17, 26, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39) (Table 4). This suggests that Yorkshire and Landrace pigs may share some common genetic background with these breeds.…”

Predicted Peptides from Non-Structural Proteins of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Are Able to Induce IFN-γ and IL-10

“…Animals were confirmed to be sero-negative to PRRSV by ELISA at the beginning of the experiment (Herdchek X3, IDEXX Laboratories Inc). Animals were genotyped for their swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) haplotypes by running low-resolution PCR screening assays (PCR-SSP) on PBMC-derived genomic DNA as described by Essler et al [31]. Animals were housed in the experimental farm of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.…”

Association between Genetic Polymorphism in the Swine Leukocyte Antigen-DRA Gene and Piglet Diarrhea in Three Chinese Pig Breeds

“…The full-length genome sequence of 4.6 kb, encodes for a polypeptide of 252 amino acid residues, which includes four exons and is considered to have limited allelic variation (Ho et al, 2009; Lunney et al, 2009). Therefore previous studies on genetic polymorphism of SLA class II genes have primarily focused on polymorphism in DQB , DRB , and DQA genes (Luetkemeier et al, 2009; Ho et al, 2010a; Essler et al, 2013), but rarely targeted the swine DRA gene for comprehensive analysis. Consequently, the extent of variation at the locus is not yet known.…”