title: Molecular cloning of Peking duck Toll-like receptor 3 (duTLR3) gene and its responses to reovirus infection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in detecting pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Among the TLRs, TLR3 is involved in the recognition of double-stranded RNA. This study was designed to explore the relationship between duTLR3 and duck reovirus (DRV) infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we cloned and performed a molecular characterization of the complete sequence of Peking duck TLR3 (duTLR3). The expression level of duTLR3 was also determined, along with the relative levels of Mx and IFN-α mRNA after DRV infection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The duTLR3 gene is 2776-bp long and encodes an 895-amino-acid-long protein. Sequence analysis of the product revealed the complete transcript of Peking duck TLR3, including the 88-bp 5'UTR, the 2688-bp coding sequence (ORF), and the 76-bp 3'UTR and poly(A) tail. DuTLR3 was found to share a high amino acid sequence similarity with TLR3 from Jing ding duck (99.6 %), Muscovy duck (97.1 %) and chicken (86.3 %). Additionally, the tissue distribution of duTLR3 suggested that it was abundantly expressed in various tissues, especially in the trachea, esophagus and pancreatic gland. Duck reovirus (DRV) infection resulted in high mRNA expression levels of duTLR3 in the spleen, liver, lung and brain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that duTLR3 may play an important role in anti-viral defense mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, 712100, China. Miaotaozhang@163.com.
authors.forename: Miaotao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, People's Republic of China. songkaijie2012@163.com.|College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, 712100, China. songkaijie2012@163.com.
authors.forename: Kaijie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, People's Republic of China. Chuanfengli@shvri.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chuanfeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, People's Republic of China. Chenzongyan@shvri.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zongyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, People's Republic of China. Dingchan@shvri.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, People's Republic of China. liugq@shvri.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Guangqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000825:Animal Structures / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004372:Ducks; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D012088:Reoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3