title: Association of the porcine cluster of differentiation 4 gene with T lymphocyte subpopulations and its expression in immune tissues.
abstract: Cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) is mainly expressed on CD4(+) T cells, which plays an important role in immune response. The aim of this study was to detect the association between polymorphisms of the CD4 gene and T lymphocyte subpopulations in pigs, and to investigate the effects of genetic variation on the CD4 gene expression level in immune tissues. Five missense mutations in the CD4 gene were identified using DNA pooling sequencing assays, and two main haplotypes (CCTCC and AGCTG) in strong linkage disequilibrium (with frequencies of 50.26% and 46.34%, respectively) were detected in the population of Large White pigs. Our results indicated that the five SNPs and the two haplotypes were significantly associated with the proportions of CD4(-)CD8(-), CD4(+)CD8(+), CD4(+)CD8(-), CD4(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) in peripheral blood (p<0.05). Gene expression analysis showed the mRNA level of the CD4 gene in thymus was significantly higher than that in lymph node and spleen (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed between animals with CCTCC/CCTCC genotype and animals with AGCTG/AGCTG genotype in the three immune tissues (p>0.05). These results indicate that the CD4 gene may influence T lymphocyte subpopulations and can be considered as a candidate gene affecting immunity in pigs.
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Jingen
authors: J
authors: Xu
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Weixuan
authors: W
authors: Fu
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Jiying
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Wenwen
authors: W
authors: Wang
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Haifei
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Jianfeng
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Xiangdong
authors: X
authors: Ding
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Zhang
keywords: CD4; Expression; Pig; Polymorphisms; T lymphocyte subpopulations