title: Characterization of the cathelicidin cluster in the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica).
abstract: The Japanese quail has several advantages as a low-fat meat bird with high immunity against diseases. Cathelicidins (CATHs) are antimicrobial peptides that play an important role in innate immunity. The aim of this study was to characterize the CATH cluster in the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). The Japanese quail CATH (CjCATH) cluster, contains four CATH genes, as in the chicken. The coding sequences of CjCATHs exhibited >85.3% identity to chicken CATHs. The predicted amino acid sequences of the four CjCATH genes contained the cathelin-like domain characteristic of CATH proteins. Polymorphisms were detected in the open reading frames (ORFs) of all CjCATH sequences. Two amino acid substitutions were observed in the antimicrobial region of the mature peptide of CjCATH2, and predicted to influence peptide function. CjCATH1 is expressed in lung, heart, bone marrow and bursa of Fabricius (BF). CjCATH2 is expressed in bone marrow. CjCATH3 is expressed in lung, heart, bone marrow, BF, tongue and duodenum. CjCATHB1 is expressed in bone marrow and BF. This study is the first to characterize CATH genes in the Japanese quail, and identifies novel antimicrobial peptide sequences belonging to the cathelicidin family, which may play a role in immunity in this species.
authors.affiliation: NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Taichiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishige
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.affiliation: NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanzawa
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000378:metabolism; D003370:Coturnix / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D004386:Duodenum / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D014059:Tongue / Q000378:metabolism; D054804:Cathelicidins
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D054804:Cathelicidins
keywords: Japanese quail; antimicrobial peptide; cathelicidin; mRNA expression; polymorphism