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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
A targeted approach to investigating immune genes of an iconic Australian marsupial
Molecular Ecology, Vol.31(12), pp.3286-3303
2022
PMID: 35510793
Abstract
Disease is a contributing factor to the decline of wildlife populations across the globe. Koalas, iconic yet declining Australian marsupials, are predominantly impacted by two pathogens, Chlamydia and koala retrovirus. Chlamydia is an obligate intracellular bacterium and one of the most widespread sexually transmitted infections in humans worldwide. In koalas, Chlamydia infections can present as asymptomatic or can cause a range of ocular and urogenital disease signs, such as conjunctivitis, cystitis and infertility. In this study, we looked at differences in response to Chlamydia in two northern populations of koalas using a targeted gene sequencing of 1,209 immune genes in addition to genome-wide reduced representation data. We identified two MHC Class I genes associated with Chlamydia disease progression as well as 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms across 17 genes that were associated with resolution of Chlamydia infection. These genes are involved in the innate immune response (TLR5) and defence (TLR5, IFNγ, SERPINE1, STAT2 and STX4). This study deepens our understanding of the role that genetics plays in disease progression in koalas and leads into future work that will use whole genome resequencing of a larger sample set to investigate in greater detail regions identified in this study. Elucidation of the role of host genetics in disease progression and resolution in koalas will directly contribute to better design of Chlamydia vaccines and management of koala populations which have recently been listed as "endangered".
Details
- Title
- A targeted approach to investigating immune genes of an iconic Australian marsupial
- Authors
- Luke W Silver (Author) - The University of SydneyYuanyuan Cheng (Author) - The University of SydneyBonnie Quigley (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, GeneCology Research Centre - LegacyAmy Robbins (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, GeneCology Research Centre - LegacyPeter Timms (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, GeneCology Research Centre - LegacyCarolyn J Hogg (Corresponding Author) - The University of SydneyKatherine Belov (Author) - The University of Sydney
- Publication details
- Molecular Ecology, Vol.31(12), pp.3286-3303
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Date published
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.1111/mec.16493
- ISSN
- 1365-294X; 0962-1083
- PMID
- 35510793
- Copyright note
- © 2022 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- Locations of probes in the genome are provided as a Supporting Information file to this article. The raw and aligned sequence data for target enrichment and DArTSeq are available through the Amazon Web Services Open Datasets Program: https://registry.opendata.aws/australasian-genomics/. Fasta sequences for alleles identified in genes UA and UC are provided as Supporting Information (UA_UC_alleles.docx). This article has earned an Open Data, for making publicly available the digitally-shareable data necessary to reproduce the reported results. The data is available at https://registry.opendata.aws/australasian-genomics/.
- Grant note
- This work was funded by the University of Sydney.
- Organisation Unit
- Thompson Institute; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99635578702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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