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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #401241
Research Project: Analysis of Genetic Factors that Increase Foodborne Pathogen Fitness, Virulence, and Antimicrobial Resistance Transfer, to Identify Interventions against Salmonella and Campylobacter in Food Animals

Location: Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research

Title: Progress toward an immune cell atlas in the chicken

Author
item WARREN, WESLEY - University Of Missouri
item RICE, EDWARD - University Of Missouri
item MEYER, ASHLEY - University Of Missouri
item SCULLEY, ELAINA - University Of Missouri
item ELSIK, CHRISTINE - University Of Missouri
item LAMONT, SUSAN - Iowa State University
item DRECHSLER, YVONNE - Western University Of Health Sciences
item Monson, Melissa
item Hearn, Cari
item Cheng, Hans

Submitted to: Annual International Plant & Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/13/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The identification of signals relevant to cell-type specific responses to a pathogen, or for the reconstruction of complex multi-cellular immune responses, has been lacking in chicken. Distinct cell populations based on shared transcriptional signatures will cluster to identify cell types critical for determining differing immune responses or infection states, but which are often not identifiable with antibody-based methods. We first prove the value of this de novo cell-type approach by discovering new canonical signaling pathways in chicken spleen immune cell types when infected with Mareks disease virus and further dissect this transcriptome response by susceptible and resistant lines at single cell resolution. One obvious research objective challenge we encountered was the need to further expand our knowledge of immune cell types in the bird, in particular sub-types of immune cells in quiescent or activated states. To address this need, we have generated single nuclei RNAseq (snRNAseq) data sets from lung, bursa of Fabricius, and spleen. From these tissue sources among multiple birds, we have built our first views of immune cell types that reside in these tissues in activated using bacterial (LPS) challenge or naïve immune cell states. Our results show a rich diversity of lymphoid and myeloid cell types that comprise the innate and adaptive immune systems in chicken. We have preliminary data showing the predicted but undefined differences of the snRNAseq signature is dependent on their tissue residence. For example, macrophages have different transcriptome profiles in the bursa versus the spleen presenting multiple new hypotheses to test why these differences occur. We will summarize our findings to date regarding immune cell atlas resources for multiomic approaches to understand avian traits of interest.