The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Roslin EH25 9RG, UK.
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, UK.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Jul 10;14(7):1422. doi: 10.3390/genes14071422.
The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes play a key role in a number of biological processes, most notably in immunological responses. The MHCI and MHCII genes incorporate a complex set of highly polymorphic and polygenic series of genes, which, due to the technical limitations of previously available technologies, have only been partially characterized in non-model but economically important species such as the horse. The advent of high-throughput sequencing platforms has provided new opportunities to develop methods to generate high-resolution sequencing data on a large scale and apply them to the analysis of complex gene sets such as the MHC. In this study, we developed and applied a MiSeq-based approach for the combined analysis of the expressed MHCI and MHCII repertoires in cohorts of Thoroughbred, Icelandic, and Norwegian Fjord Horses. The approach enabled us to generate comprehensive MHCI/II data for all of the individuals ( = 168) included in the study, identifying 152 and 117 novel MHCI and MHCII sequences, respectively. There was limited overlap in MHCI and MHCII haplotypes between the Thoroughbred and the Icelandic/Norwegian Fjord horses, showcasing the variation in MHC repertoire between genetically divergent breeds, and it can be inferred that there is much more MHC diversity in the global horse population. This study provided novel insights into the structure of the expressed equine MHC repertoire and highlighted unique features of the MHC in horses.
主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）基因在许多生物学过程中发挥着关键作用，尤其是在免疫反应中。MHC I 和 MHC II 基因包含了一系列复杂的高度多态性和多基因系列基因，由于之前可用技术的技术限制，这些基因仅在非模式但具有经济重要性的物种中得到了部分描述，例如马。高通量测序平台的出现为开发大规模生成高分辨率测序数据的方法提供了新的机会，并将其应用于 MHC 等复杂基因集的分析。在这项研究中，我们开发并应用了基于 MiSeq 的方法来联合分析纯种马、冰岛马和挪威峡湾马群体中的表达 MHC I 和 MHC II 库。该方法使我们能够为研究中包含的所有个体（= 168）生成全面的 MHC I/II 数据，分别鉴定出 152 个和 117 个新的 MHC I 和 MHC II 序列。纯种马和冰岛/挪威峡湾马之间的 MHC I 和 MHC II 单倍型重叠有限，展示了遗传上不同品种之间 MHC 库的变异，并且可以推断出全球马种群中存在更多的 MHC 多样性。这项研究提供了对表达马 MHC 库结构的新见解，并强调了马 MHC 的独特特征。
