Project description:Brucella suis infects macrophages and dendritic cells. Wild boars act as reservoirs and carriers of Brucella suis biovar 2, and there is evidence that wild boar can be the main source of infection for domestic pigs through the venereal route. Transmission through this route could be an important path for disesease dissemination. The result from this study will contribute to the overall understanding of the molecular pathogenic mechanisms involved during Brucella suis infection in European wild boar.
Project description:Brucella suis infects macrophages and dendritic cells. Wild boars act as reservoirs and carriers of Brucella suis biovar 2, and there is evidence that wild boar can be the main source of infection for domestic pigs through the venereal route. Transmission through this route could be an important path for disesease dissemination. The result from this study will contribute to the overall understanding of the molecular pathogenic mechanisms involved during Brucella suis infection in European wild boar. Experiment Overall Design: In this study we preliminarily characterized differential gene expression in European wild boar naturally infected with Brucella suis biovar 2 using Microarray hybridization and Real Time RT-PCR analysis. Since Brucella suis acts by infecting macrophages, we used spleen cells to analyze the gene expression response to Brucella suis infection.
Project description:Mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) greatly impact on human and animal health worldwide. Mycobacterial life cycle is complex and the mechanisms resulting in pathogen infection and survival in host cells are not fully understood. Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) are natural reservoir hosts for MTBC and a model for mycobacterial infection and tuberculosis (TB). In the wild boar TB model, mycobacterial infection affects the expression of innate and adaptive immune response genes in mandibular lymph nodes and oropharyngeal tonsils and biomarkers have been proposed as correlates with resistance to natural infection. However, the mechanisms used by mycobacteria to manipulate host immune response are not fully characterized. Our hypothesis is that the immune system proteins under-represented in infected animals when compared to uninfected controls are used by mycobacteria to guarantee pathogen infection and transmission. To address this hypothesis, a comparative proteomics approach was used to compare host response between uninfected (TB-) and M. bovis-infected young (TB+) and adult animals with different infection status [TB lesions localized in the head (TB+) or affecting multiple organs (TB++)]. The results identified host immune system proteins that play an important role in host response to mycobacteria. Calcium binding protein A9, Heme peroxidase, Lactotransferrin, Cathelicidin and Peptidoglycan-recognition protein were under-represented in TB+ animals when compared to uninfected TB- controls but protein levels increased as infection progressed in TB++ animals when compared to TB- and/or TB+ adult wild boar. MHCI was the only protein over-represented in TB+ adult wild boar when compared to uninfected TB- controls. The results reported here suggested that M. bovis manipulates host immune response by reducing the production of immune system proteins. However, as infection progresses, wild boar immune response recover to limit pathogen multiplication and promote survival that also facilitates pathogen transmission.
Project description:Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects a wide variety of host species and causes the diseases granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans, horses and dogs and tick-borne fever in ruminants. The objective of this research was to characterize differential gene expression in wild boar naturally infected with A. phagocytophilum by microarray hybridization using the GeneChip® Porcine Genome Array Differential gene expression in wild boar naturally infected with A. phagocytophilum was chacarterized by microarray hybridization using the GeneChip® Porcine Genome Array and real-time RT-PCR.
Project description:In this study, differentially expressed (DE)piRNAs of fresh and frozen-thawed sperm with different freeze tolerance compacity from giant panda and boar were evaluated. The results showed 1160 (22 down-regulated and 1138 up-regulated) and 384 (110 up-regulated and 274 down-regulated) differentially expressed (DE) piRNAs were identified in giant panda and boar sperm, respectively. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that the target DE mRNAs of DE piRNAs were mainly enriched in biological regulation, cellular process and metabolic process in giant panda and boar sperm. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that the target DE mRNAs of DE piRNAs were only distributed on DNA replication and cAMP signaling pathway in giant panda, but cAMP, cGMP and MAPK signaling pathway in boar sperm which were considered as part of olfactory transduction pathway.Conclusion:Olfactory transduction related pathways maybe contributed to different freeze tolerance compacity between giant panda and boar sperm, which will benefit to further understand the molecular mechanism of sperm cryoinjury and freezability.