scholarly journals Southern introgression increases adaptive immune gene variability in northern range margin populations of Fire‐bellied toad

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binia De Cahsan ◽  
Katrin Kiemel ◽  
Michael V. Westbury ◽  
Maike Lauritsen ◽  
Marijke Autenrieth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Gene ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
Gene Variability

scholarly journals Southern introgression increases adaptive immune gene variability in northern range margin populations of Fire-bellied toad

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binia De Cahsan ◽  
Katrin Kiemel ◽  
Michael Westbury ◽  
Maike Lauritsen ◽  
Marijke Autenrieth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Introgressive Hybridization ◽  
Mitochondrial Control Region ◽  
The Body ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
The Impact

Northern range margin populations of the European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) have rapidly declined during recent decades. Extensive agricultural land use has fragmented the landscape, leading to habitat disruption and loss, as well as eutrophication of ponds. In Northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) and Southern Sweden, this decline resulted in decreased gene flow from surrounding populations, low genetic diversity, and a putative reduction in adaptive potential, leaving populations vulnerable to future environmental and climatic changes. Previous studies using mitochondrial control region and nuclear transcriptome-wide SNP data detected introgressive hybridization in multiple northern B. bombina populations after presumed illegal release of toads from Austria. Here, we determine the impact of this introgression by comparing the body conditions (as a proxy for fitness) of introgressed and non-introgressed populations, and the genetic consequences in two candidate genes for putative local adaptation (the MHC II gene as part of the adaptive immune system and the stress response gene HSP70 kDa). We detected regional differences in body condition. We observed significantly elevated levels of within individual MHC allele counts in introgressed Swedish populations, associated with a tendency towards higher body weight, relative to regional non-introgressed populations. These differences were not observed among introgressed and non-introgressed German populations. Genetic diversity in both MHC and HSP was generally lower in northern than southern populations. Our study sheds light on the potential benefits of translocations of more distantly related conspecifics as a means to increase adaptive genetic variability and fitness of struggling range margin populations without distortion of local adaptation.

Immune gene variability influences roe deer natal dispersal

Oikos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 125 (12) ◽  
pp. 1790-1801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Vanpé ◽  
Lucie Debeffe ◽  
Maxime Galan ◽  
A. J. Mark Hewison ◽  
Jean-Michel Gaillard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roe Deer ◽  
Natal Dispersal ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Gene Variability

scholarly journals Regulation of Immune Responses by Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul V. Licciardi ◽  
Tom C. Karagiannis
Keyword(s):  
Histone Deacetylase ◽  
Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors ◽  
Hdac Inhibitors ◽  
Adaptive Immune Response ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Epigenetic Factors ◽  
New Class ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
Immune Gene Expression

Both genetic and epigenetic factors are important regulators of the immune system. There is an increasing body of evidence attesting to epigenetic modifications that influence the development of distinct innate and adaptive immune response cells. Chromatin remodelling via acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitination of histone proteins as well as DNA, methylation is epigenetic mechanisms by which immune gene expression can be controlled. In this paper, we will discuss the role of epigenetics in the regulation of host immunity, with particular emphasis on histone deacetylase inhibitors. In particular, the role of HDAC inhibitors as a new class of immunomodulatory therapeutics will also be reviewed.

scholarly journals Interleukin-15 response signature predicts RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. e1009278
Author(s):  
Fredrik Barrenäs ◽  
Scott G. Hansen ◽  
Lynn Law ◽  
Connor Driscoll ◽  
Richard R. Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Vaccine Efficacy ◽  
Cell Function ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Effector Memory ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
Interleukin 15

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) challenge of rhesus macaques (RMs) vaccinated with strain 68–1 Rhesus Cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) vectors expressing SIV proteins (RhCMV/SIV) results in a binary outcome: stringent control and subsequent clearance of highly pathogenic SIV in ~55% of vaccinated RMs with no protection in the remaining 45%. Although previous work indicates that unconventionally restricted, SIV-specific, effector-memory (EM)-biased CD8+ T cell responses are necessary for efficacy, the magnitude of these responses does not predict efficacy, and the basis of protection vs. non-protection in 68–1 RhCMV/SIV vector-vaccinated RMs has not been elucidated. Here, we report that 68–1 RhCMV/SIV vector administration strikingly alters the whole blood transcriptome of vaccinated RMs, with the sustained induction of specific immune-related pathways, including immune cell, toll-like receptor (TLR), inflammasome/cell death, and interleukin-15 (IL-15) signaling, significantly correlating with subsequent vaccine efficacy. Treatment of a separate RM cohort with IL-15 confirmed the central involvement of this cytokine in the protection signature, linking the major innate and adaptive immune gene expression networks that correlate with RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy. This change-from-baseline IL-15 response signature was also demonstrated to significantly correlate with vaccine efficacy in an independent validation cohort of vaccinated and challenged RMs. The differential IL-15 gene set response to vaccination strongly correlated with the pre-vaccination activity of this pathway, with reduced baseline expression of IL-15 response genes significantly correlating with higher vaccine-induced induction of IL-15 signaling and subsequent vaccine protection, suggesting that a robust de novo vaccine-induced IL-15 signaling response is needed to program vaccine efficacy. Thus, the RhCMV/SIV vaccine imparts a coordinated and persistent induction of innate and adaptive immune pathways featuring IL-15, a known regulator of CD8+ T cell function, that support the ability of vaccine-elicited unconventionally restricted CD8+ T cells to mediate protection against SIV challenge.

scholarly journals Transcriptomic Signatures of Tacaribe Virus-Infected Jamaican Fruit Bats

mSphere ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana L. Gerrard ◽  
Ann Hawkinson ◽  
Tyler Sherman ◽  
Cassandra M. Modahl ◽  
Gretchen Hume ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Antiviral Responses ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
Immune Gene Expression ◽  
Tacaribe Virus ◽  
Reservoir Hosts ◽  
Different Tissues

ABSTRACT As reservoir hosts of viruses associated with human disease, little is known about the interactions between bats and viruses. Using Jamaican fruit bats infected with Tacaribe virus (TCRV) as a model, we characterized the gene expression responses to infection in different tissues and identified pathways involved with the response to infection. This report is the most detailed gene discovery work in the species to date and the first to describe immune gene expression responses in bats during a pathogenic viral infection. Tacaribe virus (TCRV) is a mammalian arenavirus that was first isolated from artibeus bats in the 1950s. Subsequent experimental infection of Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) caused a disease similar to that of naturally infected bats. Although substantial attention has focused on bats as reservoir hosts of viruses that cause human disease, little is known about the interactions between bats and their pathogens. We performed a transcriptome-wide study to illuminate the response of Jamaican fruit bats experimentally infected with TCRV. Differential gene expression analysis of multiple tissues revealed global and organ-specific responses associated with innate antiviral responses, including interferon alpha/beta and Toll-like receptor signaling, activation of complement cascades, and cytokine signaling, among others. Genes encoding proteins involved in adaptive immune responses, such as gamma interferon signaling and costimulation of T cells by the CD28 family, were also altered in response to TCRV infection. Immunoglobulin gene expression was also elevated in the spleens of infected bats, including IgG, IgA, and IgE isotypes. These results indicate an active innate and adaptive immune response to TCRV infection occurred but did not prevent fatal disease. This de novo assembly provides a high-throughput data set of the Jamaican fruit bat and its host response to TCRV infection, which remains a valuable tool to understand the molecular signatures involved in antiviral responses in bats. IMPORTANCE As reservoir hosts of viruses associated with human disease, little is known about the interactions between bats and viruses. Using Jamaican fruit bats infected with Tacaribe virus (TCRV) as a model, we characterized the gene expression responses to infection in different tissues and identified pathways involved with the response to infection. This report is the most detailed gene discovery work in the species to date and the first to describe immune gene expression responses in bats during a pathogenic viral infection.

scholarly journals Evolution of male pregnancy associated with remodeling of canonical vertebrate immunity in seahorses and pipefishes

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (17) ◽  
pp. 9431-9439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Roth ◽  
Monica Hongrø Solbakken ◽  
Ole Kristian Tørresen ◽  
Till Bayer ◽  
Michael Matschiner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Immunological Tolerance ◽  
Immune Defense ◽  
Immune Gene ◽  
Gene Repertoire ◽  
Mhc Ii ◽  
Adaptive Immune ◽  
Male Pregnancy

A fundamental problem for the evolution of pregnancy, the most specialized form of parental investment among vertebrates, is the rejection of the nonself-embryo. Mammals achieve immunological tolerance by down-regulating both major histocompatibility complex pathways (MHC I and II). Although pregnancy has evolved multiple times independently among vertebrates, knowledge of associated immune system adjustments is restricted to mammals. All of them (except monotremata) display full internal pregnancy, making evolutionary reconstructions within the class mammalia meaningless. Here, we study the seahorse and pipefish family (syngnathids) that have evolved male pregnancy across a gradient from external oviparity to internal gestation. We assess how immunological tolerance is achieved by reconstruction of the immune gene repertoire in a comprehensive sample of 12 seahorse and pipefish genomes along the “male pregnancy” gradient together with expression patterns of key immune and pregnancy genes in reproductive tissues. We found that the evolution of pregnancy coincided with a modification of the adaptive immune system. Divergent genomic rearrangements of the MHC II pathway among fully pregnant species were identified in both genera of the syngnathids: The pipefishes (Syngnathus) displayed loss of several genes of the MHC II pathway while seahorses (Hippocampus) featured a highly divergent invariant chain (CD74). Our findings suggest that a trade-off between immunological tolerance and embryo rejection accompanied the evolution of unique male pregnancy. That pipefishes survive in an ocean of microbes without one arm of the adaptive immune defense suggests a high degree of immunological flexibility among vertebrates, which may advance our understanding of immune-deficiency diseases.

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