title: The simple chicken major histocompatibility complex: life and death in the face of pathogens and vaccines.
abstract: In contrast to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of well-studied mammals such as humans and mice, the particular haplotype of the B-F/B-L region of the chicken B locus determines life and death in response to certain infectious pathogens as well as to certain vaccines. We found that the B-F/B-L region is much smaller and simpler than the typical mammalian MHC, with an important difference being the expression of a single class I gene at a high level of RNA and protein. The peptide-binding specificity of this dominantly expressed class I molecule in different haplotypes correlates with resistance to tumours caused by Rous sarcoma virus, while the cell-surface expression level correlates with susceptibility to tumours caused by Marek's disease virus. A similar story is developing with class II beta genes and response to killed viral vaccines. This apparently suicidal strategy of single dominantly expressed class I and class II molecules may be due to coevolution between genes within the compact chicken MHC.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Animal Health, Compton, Berkshire, UK. jim.kaufman@bbsrc.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaufman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001358:Avian Sarcoma Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000472:pathogenicity; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008380:Marek Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D001357:Sarcoma, Avian / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D014765:Viral Vaccines