SNP marker discovery in koala TLR genes.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 25799012.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0121068 and PMC identifier 4370664.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a crucial role in the early defence against invading pathogens, yet our understanding of TLRs in marsupial immunity is limited. Here, we describe the characterisation of nine TLRs from a koala immune tissue transcriptome and one TLR from a draft sequence of the koala genome and the subsequent development of an assay to study genetic diversity in these genes. We surveyed genetic diversity in 20 koalas from New South Wales, Australia and showed that one gene, TLR10 is monomorphic, while the other nine TLR genes have between two and 12 alleles. 40 SNPs (16 non-synonymous) were identified across the ten TLR genes. These markers provide a springboard to future studies on innate immunity in the koala, a species under threat from two major infectious diseases.
Medical subject headings
- Phascolarctidae
- Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
- Toll-Like Receptor 10