Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Illinois Natural History Survey-Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Feb 8;14(2):426. doi: 10.3390/genes14020426.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) leads to high mortality in white-tailed deer () and is caused by a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) virus. Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) plays a role in host immune detection and response to dsRNA viruses. We, therefore, examined the role of genetic variation within the gene in EHD among 84 Illinois wild white-tailed deer (26 EHD-positive deer and 58 EHD-negative controls). The entire coding region of the gene was sequenced: 2715 base pairs encoding 904 amino acids. We identified 85 haplotypes with 77 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), of which 45 were synonymous mutations and 32 were non-synonymous. Two non-synonymous SNPs differed significantly in frequency between EHD-positive and EHD-negative deer. In the EHD-positive deer, phenylalanine was relatively less likely to be encoded at codon positions 59 and 116, whereas leucine and serine (respectively) were detected less frequently in EHD-negative deer. Both amino acid substitutions were predicted to impact protein structure or function. Understanding associations between polymorphisms and EHD provides insights into the role of host genetics in outbreaks of EHD in deer, which may allow wildlife agencies to better understand the severity of outbreaks.
流行性出血热病 (EHD) 可导致白尾鹿的高死亡率，其病原体是一种双链 RNA (dsRNA) 病毒。Toll 样受体 3 (TLR3) 在宿主对 dsRNA 病毒的免疫检测和反应中发挥作用。因此，我们研究了 84 只伊利诺伊州野生白尾鹿 (26 只 EHD 阳性鹿和 58 只 EHD 阴性对照) 中 基因内遗传变异在 EHD 中的作用。我们对 基因的整个编码区进行了测序：2715 个碱基对编码 904 个氨基酸。我们鉴定了 85 种单倍型，其中 77 个为单核苷酸多态性 (SNP)，其中 45 个为同义突变，32 个为非同义突变。两种非同义 SNP 在 EHD 阳性和 EHD 阴性鹿之间的频率存在显著差异。在 EHD 阳性鹿中，第 59 和 116 位密码子处的苯丙氨酸编码的可能性相对较低，而 EHD 阴性鹿中检测到的亮氨酸和丝氨酸（分别）的频率较低。这两种氨基酸取代都被预测会影响蛋白质结构或功能。了解 基因多态性与 EHD 之间的关联，为宿主遗传学在鹿类 EHD 爆发中的作用提供了深入了解，这可能使野生动物机构能够更好地了解爆发的严重程度。
