Cloning and characterization of deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) cytokine and chemokine cDNAs.
BACKGROUND
Sin Nombre virus (SNV) establishes a persistent infection in the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. A strong antibody response occurs in response to SNV infection, but the role of the innate immune response is unclear. To address this issue, we have initiated an effort to identify and characterize deer mouse cytokine and chemokine genes. Such cytokines and chemokines are involved in various aspects of immunity, including the transition from innate to adaptive responses, type I and type II responses, recruitment of leukocytes to sites of infection, and production of mature cells from bone marrow progenitors.


RESULTS
We established a colony of SNV antibody-negative deer mice and cloned 11 cytokine and chemokine partial cDNA sequences using directed PCR. Most of the deer mouse sequences were highly conserved with orthologous sequences from other rodent species and functional domains were identified in each putative polypeptide.


CONCLUSIONS
The availability of these sequences will allow the examination of the role of these cytokines in deer mouse responses to infection with Sin Nombre virus.
Schountz
Tony
T
Department of Biological Sciences, Mesa State College, 1100 North Ave, Grand Junction, CO 81501, USA. tschount@mesastate.edu
Green
Renata
R
Davenport
Bennett
B
Buniger
Amie
A
Richens
Tiffany
T
Root
J Jeffrey
JJ
Davidson
Forbes
F
Calisher
Charles H
CH
Beaty
Barry J
BJ
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018925:Chemokines / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007378:Interleukins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010542:Peromyscus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment
D018925:Chemokines; D016207:Cytokines; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D007378:Interleukins; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor