Characterization of recombinant Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) insulin

The production of hormones by biotechnological approaches has contributed significantly to treatment of many diseases. DNA recombinant technology has facilitated production of new forms of insulin from many species and mammalian insulin to be used as a therapy for diabetic patients. In this study, proinsulin from Arabian camel was produced and characterized for the first time by recombinanttechnology. Recombinant camel proinsulin was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli to be produced and characterized it in vitro. Camel proinsulin sequence was compared with human insulin sequences. Camel proinsulin is 5.8 kDa in size and includes 87 amino acids with highly conserved domains. Proinsulins are highly conserved enzymes in many mammals; camel proinsulin possesses 87.5% homology to human proinsulin by amino acid sequences. The C peptide chain is made up of a total of 35 amino acids of which 27 amino acids are identical and the remaining are variable. The three dimensional structure of camel proinsulin was deduced for molecule homology studies with human proinsulin. The results suggest that, camel proinsulin cDNA may be used as a specific probe for proinsulin studies with other organisms and may serve biotechnology field as a model for future comparative enzymatic, therapeutic and pharmaceutical studies

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Emerging Infection with Mycobacterium avium Subspecies paratuberculosis in the Arabian Camels (Camelus dromedarius)

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. ap) is the causative agent of paratuberculosis or Johne's disease (JD) in herbivores with potential involvement in cases of Crohn's disease in humans. JD is spread worldwide and is economically important for both beef and dairy industries. Generally, pathogenic ovine strains (M. ap-S) are mainly found in sheep while bovine strains (M. ap-C) infect other ruminants (e.g. cattle, goat, deer), as well as sheep. In an effort to characterize this emerging infection in dromedary/Arabian camels, we successfully cultured M. ap from several samples collected from infected camels suffering from chronic, intermittent diarrhea suggestive of JD. Gene-based typing of isolates indicated that all isolates belong to sheep lineage of strains of M. ap (M. ap-S), suggesting a putative transmission from infected sheep herds. Screening sheep and goat herds associated with camels identified the circulation of this type in sheep but not goats. The current genome-wide analysis recognizes these camel isolates as a sub-lineage of the sheep strain with a significant number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between sheep and camel isolates (∼1000 SNPs). Such polymorphism could represent geographical differences among isolates or host adaptation of M. ap during camel infection. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine the genomic basis of this emerging infection in camels with implications on the evolution of this important pathogen. The sequenced genomes of M. ap isolates from camels will further assist our efforts to understand JD pathogenesis and the dynamic of disease transmission across animal species