title: Temporal anomalies in immunological gene expression in a time series of wild mice: signature of an epidemic?
abstract: Although the ecological importance of coinfection is increasingly recognized, analyses of microbial pathogen dynamics in wildlife usually focus on an ad hoc subset of the species present due to technological limitations on detection. Here we demonstrate the use of expression profiles for immunological genes (pattern recognition receptors, cytokines and transcription factors) as a means to identify, without preconception, the likelihood of important acute microbial infections in wildlife. Using a wood mouse population in the UK as a model we identified significant temporal clusters of individuals with extreme expression of immunological mediators across multiple loci, typical of an acute microbial infection. These clusters were circumstantially associated with demographic perturbation in the summertime wood mouse population. Animals in one cluster also had significantly higher individual macroparasite burdens than contemporaries with "normal" expression patterns. If the extreme transcriptional profiles observed are induced by an infectious agent then this implicates macroparasites as a possible player in mediating individual susceptibility or resilience to infection. The form of survey described here, combined with next generation nucleic acids sequencing methods for the broad detection of microbial infectious agents in individuals with anomalous immunological transcriptional profiles, could be a powerful tool for revealing unrecognized, ecologically important infectious agents circulating in wildlife populations.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ida M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Friberg
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.forename: Catriona
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ralli
authors.forename: Janette E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2 / Q000235:genetics; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000235:genetics; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9 / Q000235:genetics; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000235:genetics; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; C498833:Foxp3 protein, mouse; C493486:Tlr2 protein, mouse; C493487:Tlr4 protein, mouse; C495370:Tlr9 protein, mouse; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016753:Interleukin-10