title: Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) class I allele typing of Danish swine herds and identification of commonly occurring haplotypes using sequence specific low and high resolution primers.
abstract: The swine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genomic region (SLA) is extremely polymorphic comprising high numbers of different alleles, many encoding a distinct MHC class I molecule, which binds and presents endogenous peptides to circulating T cells of the immune system. Upon recognition of such peptide-MHC complexes (pMHC) naïve T cells can become activated and respond to a given pathogen leading to its elimination and the generation of memory cells. Hence SLA plays a crucial role in maintaining overall adaptive immunologic resistance to pathogens. Knowing which SLA alleles that are commonly occurring can be of great importance in regard to future vaccine development and the establishment of immune protection in swine through broad coverage, highly specific, subunit based vaccination against viruses such as swine influenza, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, foot-and-mouth-disease virus and others. Here we present the use of low- and high-resolution PCR-based typing methods to identify individual and commonly occurring SLA class I alleles in Danish swine. A total of 101 animals from seven different herds were tested, and by low resolution typing the top four most frequent SLA class I alleles were those of the allele groups SLA-3*04XX, SLA-1*08XX, SLA-2*02XX, and SLA-1*07XX, respectively. Customised high resolution primers were used to identify specific alleles within the above mentioned allele groups as well as within the SLA-2*05XX allele group. Our studies also suggest the most common haplotype in Danish pigs to be Lr-4.0 expressing the SLA-1*04XX, SLA-2*04XX, and SLA-3*04XX allele combination.
authors.affiliation: The National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lasse Eggers
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: The National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. Electronic address: grju@vet.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Gregers
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jungersen
authors.affiliation: The National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maria Rathmann
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.affiliation: Histocompatibility Laboratory, Gift of Life Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA.
authors.forename: Chak-Sum
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: The National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Dorte Fink
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Vadekær
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D003718:Denmark; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; C438668:swine leukocyte antigen; D004247:DNA
keywords: Major histocompatibility complex; Outbred pigs; PCR-SSP; SLA diversity; Swine leukocyte antigen