title: Genomic organization and transcript profiling of the bovine toll-like receptor gene cluster TLR6-TLR1-TLR10.
abstract: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of recognition receptors playing a crucial role in the innate immune system. Different combinations of TLRs are thought to be crucial for effective immune response, thus insight into the organization and expression of TLRs is important for understanding disease resistance. Mastitis is the most frequent and costly disease in dairy production, and the innate immune system is considered to be important in the first line defence against this disease. In the present paper we have characterized the genomic organization of TLR6-TLR1-TLR10 in a approximately 50 kb region of bovine chromosome 6, including 5'-untranslated exons not previously described. A method for gene expression analysis was developed and used for transcription profiling of the three paralogous genes in different bovine tissues. The expression analysis showed similar expression profiles for TLR1 and TLR6, which indicate a co-regulation of these two genes in cattle. TLR10 had a different expression profile, pointing toward a stronger functional diversification compared to TLR1 and TLR6. The differences in expression are in accordance with the evolutionary history of this gene cluster, where TLR10 diverged from the common ancestral gene before the duplication event that created TLR1 and TLR6.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Box 5003, N-1432 Aas, Norway.
authors.forename: Monica Aa
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Opsal
authors.forename: Dag Inge
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Våge
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.forename: Ingunn
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Berget
authors.forename: Sigbjørn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lien
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics*; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D016678:Genome; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D009928:Organ Specificity; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D013154:Spleen / Q000378:metabolism; D051194:Toll-Like Receptor 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D051201:Toll-Like Receptor 10 / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D051216:Toll-Like Receptor 6 / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D051194:Toll-Like Receptor 1; D051201:Toll-Like Receptor 10; D051216:Toll-Like Receptor 6