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Title: Immunogenetics

Author
item Lunney, Joan
item EGUCHI-OGAWA, TOMOKO - National Institute Of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)
item UENISHI, HIROHIDE - National Institute Of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)
item WERTZ, NANCY - University Of Iowa
item BUTLER, JOHN - University Of Iowa

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/14/2010
Publication Date: 2/15/2011
Citation: Lunney, J.K., Eguchi-Ogawa, T., Uenishi, H., Wertz, N., Butler, J.E. 2011. Immunogenetics. In: Ruvinsky, A., Rothschild M., editors. The Genetics of the Pig. 2nd Edition. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. p. 101-133.

Interpretive Summary: For the 2nd edition of the text The Genetics of the Pig the editors asked Drs. Lunney and Butler to revise their origianl chapter on Immunogenetics. There has been substantial progress in immunology and genomics of the pig immune system and major advances in approaches for understanding genetic control of pig health and disease responses. This is reflected in part by the addition of new coauthors for this chapter. This chapter summarizes the underpinning scientific basis of swine immunogenetics. It highlights developments in swine immunology and genomics and applications for pig health and disease control.

Technical Abstract: The immune system protects swine against infection and coordinates immune responses to an unknown array of foreign antigens, vaccines and pathogens. Any meaningful attempt to correlate classical genetics of disease resistance of swine to differences in immune system genetics must consider the genetic origin of innate and adaptive immune receptors. The immune system adds an additional level of complexity to understanding genetics as a result of the differentiation of lymphocytes, i.e., the T cells and B cells, and their receptors. This chapter highlights the combination of genetic mechanisms, including recombination-activating gene protein-mediated somatic recombination, gene segment rearrangement, junctional diversity, and somatic mutation mechanisms, used to generate the vast repertoire of T-cell and B-cell receptors. An equally important genetic element is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) which is also highly complex,resulting from the large number of allelic variants at many of the >300 loci in the complex. The MHC antigens, in swine the swine leukocyte antigens (SLA), are vital to the overall immune response because of their role in binding and presentation of foreign antigens to the T cell receptor. This chapter tries to explain for young scientists the differences between the genetics of adaptive immune receptors and those controlling simple Mendelian traits. This chapter focuses on the genetic of the porcine MHC, T-cell and B-cell receptors, as well as the many genetic loci that regulate innate and adaptive immune responses.