Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #159448
Title: NOMENCLATURE FOR FACTORS OF THE SLA CLASS I SYSTEM 2004

Author
item SMITH, DOUGLAS - BAYLOR U MED CTR, TEXAS
item Lunney, Joan
item MARTENS, GREG - BAYLOR U MED CTR, TEXAS
item ANDO, ASAKO - TOKAI U, JAPAN
item LEE, JUN-HEON - SOUTH KOREA
item HO, CHAK-SUMN - BAYLOR U MED CTR, TEXAS
item SCHOOK, LAWRENCE - U ILLINOIS URBANA
item RENARD, CHRISTINE - FRANCE
item CHARDON, PATRICK - FRANCE

Submitted to: Tissue Antigen
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/17/2004
Publication Date: 1/20/2005
Citation: Smith, D.M., Lunney, J.K., Martens, G.W., Ando, A., Lee, J., Ho, C., Schook, L., Renard, C., Chardon, P. 2005. Nomenclature for factors of the sla class i system 2004. Tissue Antigen. 65:136-149.

Interpretive Summary: Vaccine and infectious disease responses are stimulated when vaccine or microbial antigens are processed and presented to the immune system by host proteins, termed the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens. In most mammalian species the MHC codes for >200 genes many of very are very polymorphic, i.e., different between individuals. For swine the MHC is called the Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) complex. This manuscript covers only one-third of he SLA complex, the SLA class I genes. The SLA class I genes are very polymorphic thus enabling the pig to respond to a broad array of infectious disease challenges; a subset of less polymorphic SLA class I genes may be involved in reproductive functions. Genetic diversity means that scientists must develop a systematic nomenclature to designate each polymorphic allele at each genetic locus. This manuscript presents the proposed nomenclature that swine researchers developed under the auspices of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG). The proposed nomenclature parallels the World Health Organization's nomenclature for factors of the human MHC, the HLA complex. As many as 15 alleles at any one SLA class have been reported and now have been assigned an appropriate allelic designation. Disease researchers will now be able to use this information to design new tools, such as SLA tetramers, to identify cell subsets that control infectious disease response. This systematic nomenclature for SLA class I alleles is critical to the further development of research in swine immunology and disease research and for use of the swine as a transplantation model and xenotranplantation donor. It allows investigators to communicate more easily about SLA alleles and haplotypes, particularly in outbred pigs, where there are few molecularly defined SLA haplotypes. Overall, such information will be very useful for designing vaccines that produce effective protective immunity for infectious diseases in every pig.

Technical Abstract: A systematic nomenclature for the genes and alleles of the swine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is essential to the development and communication of research in swine immunology. The Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) Nomenclature Committee of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) has reviewed all of the DNA sequence information for MHC class I genes, available in GenBank, and the associated published reports to develop such a systematic nomenclature. This manuscript summarizes the proposed nomenclature, which parallels the World Health Organization's nomenclature for factors of the human MHC. The classical class I SLA genes will be noted as SLA-1, SLA-2 and SLA-3; the non-classical as SLA-6, SLA-7, and SLA-8. Nomenclature assignments for all SLA class I GenBank sequences are now noted. The committee will add new SLA class I allele designations, as they are discovered, and will maintain a publicly available list of all recognized genes and alleles using the international ImMunoGeneTics project (IMGT) and its IPD/MHC sequence database for MHC sequences in veterinary species.