title: Nucleotide sequence and polymorphism of the caprine major histocompatibility complex class II DQA1 (Cahi-DQA1) gene.
abstract: The major histocompatibility class II DQ molecules are dimeric glycoproteins involved in antigen presentation to CD4(+) T cells. In the current work, we have performed the molecular analysis of the goat Cahi-DQA1 gene. Sequencing of the Cahi-DQA1 cDNA revealed a single 768bp open reading frame. The alignment of this sequence with its bovine and ovine DQA1 counterparts revealed a remarkable degree of nucleotide identity (92-93% for the most similar bovine and ovine sequences). Moreover, we amplified a region including the 3'-end of intron 1, exon 2 and the 5'-end of intron 2. We identified seven Cahi-DQA1 alleles that likely correspond to four different allelic lineages. The alignment of these seven Cahi-DQA1 alleles revealed the existence of 23 amino acid polymorphic sites, seven of which (alpha(10), alpha(55), alpha(56), alpha(68), alpha(69), alpha(71) and alpha(76)) are highly polymorphic with at least three amino acid substitutions. Ten of the 23 polymorphic amino acid sites were included in the peptide binding region and consequently they might play a crucial role in immunological processes modulating disease pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Spain. Marcel.Amills@uab.es
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amills
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sulas
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sànchez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bertoni
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zanoni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Obexer-Ruff
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics*; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II