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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Genetics and Animal Breeding » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #288791
Title: Characterizing changes in the immune repertoire of cattle using next-gen sequencing

Author
item Smith, Timothy - Tim
item Larsen, Peter

Submitted to: Annual International Plant & Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/20/2012
Publication Date: 1/12/2013
Citation: Smith, T.P.L., Larsen, P.A. 2013. Characterizing changes in the immune repertoire of cattle using next-gen sequencing [Abstract]. Plant & Animal Genome XXI Conference, January 12-16, 2013, San Diego, CA. Paper No. W147.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Vertebrate immune systems generate diverse repertoires of antibodies capable of mediating response to a variety of antigens. Next-gen sequencing permits characterization of expressed antibody repertoires at previously unattainable depths of coverage and accuracy. We examined the bovine immunoglobulin G (IgG) repertoire to examine diversity of expressed IgG transcripts during postnatal development and in response to pathogen challenge. We focused on expressed transcripts because our primary interest is in detecting repertoire changes among activated cells, and because a full germ line sequence for the cattle immunoglobulin locus is not available for design of genome-based primers. A network-based approach was used to characterize complementarity-determining region (CDR) diversity, documenting changes in repertoires of eleven animals as they progressed from neonate to weaning, during weekly samplings over the first twelve weeks after birth. Proliferation of the potential antigen binding repertoire during development will be described, and comparative aspects among CDR of individual animals will be presented. In preliminary experiments, we observed profound alterations in repertoire in animals presented with pathogenic challenge, supporting the hypothesis that immune repertoire characterization can provide insights into disease processes and the health status of individuals, as well as potentially guiding antibody discovery and engineering, disease surveillance, and host immune response to vaccines.