The Feline Major Histocompatibility Complex

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a region of the genome encoding genes essential to the immune system. The cat MHC has been recently sequenced and analysed, which will allow for future research into the diversity and associations of feline MHC genes. This will have applications in both cats and other felids such as cheetahs. The cheetah MHC is of interest to researchers due to its very low polymorphism as deduced from skin graft experimentation. This lack of MHC diversity has resulted in difficulties with breeding cheetahs in captivity. Development of MHC-linked markers will enable us to determine the polymorphism of cheetah MHC alleles and will have applications in studying mating preferences. A link between mating preferences and MHC loci has been established in a range of species, but has not yet been studied in any feline species. MHC-linked markers will also have applications in studying the association between particular MHC genes and feline diseases such as feline immunodeficiency virus and feline diabetes. This will have an influence on the prevention and treatment of both feline and human diseas

Identification and analysis of divergent immune gene families within the Tasmanian devil genome

Background: The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is being threatened with extinction in the wild by a disease known as devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). In order to prevent the spread of this disease a thorough understanding of the Tasmanian devil immune system and its response to the disease is required. In 2011 and 2012 two genome sequencing projects of the Tasmania devil were released. This has provided us with the raw data required to begin to investigate the Tasmanian devil immunome in depth. In this study we characterise immune gene families of the Tasmanian devil. We focus on immunoglobulins, T cell receptors and cytokine families. Results: We identify and describe 119 cytokines including 40 interleukins, 39 chemokines, 8 interferons, 18 tumour necrosis family cytokines and 14 additional cytokines. Constant regions for immunoglobulins and T cell receptors were also identified. The repertoire of genes in these families was similar to the opossum, however devil specific duplications were seen and orthologs to eutherian genes not previously identified in any marsupial were also identified. Conclusions: By using multiple data sources as well as targeted search methods, highly divergent genes across the Tasmanian devil immune system were identified and characterised. This understanding will allow for the development of devil specific assays and reagents and allow for future studies into the immune response of the Tasmanian devil immune system to DFTD

MathSpark: Sparking student curiosity through hands-on, inquiry-based mathematics explorations inspired by funds of knowledge

Abstract: Much of the existing research focuses on the questions teachers ask students, but there is very little information about the questions students ask. The main purpose of this research was to explore ways to engage students in asking their own questions in the learning of mathematics, and to create a scale to help educators categorize the types of questions students ask. We created and used inquiry-based, funds of knowledge-rich lessons with productive struggle opportunities to promote curiosity (Calleja, 2016) and elicit student questions to develop and test our question categorization scale

The Role of Dendritic Cells in the Host Response to Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV) as Shown by Transcriptomic Analysis of Susceptible and Resistant Birds

Despite the successful control of highly contagious tumorigenic Marek’s disease (MD) by vaccination, a continuous increase in MD virus (MDV) virulence over recent decades has put emphasis on the development of more MD-resistant chickens. The cell types and genes involved in resistance therefore need to be recognized. The virus is primarily lymphotropic, but research should also focus on innate immunity, as innate immune cells are among the first to encounter MDV. Our previous study on MDV–macrophage interaction revealed significant differences between MHC-congenic lines 6(1) (MD-resistant) and 7(2) (MD-susceptible). To investigate the role of dendritic cells (DCs) in MD resistance, bone-marrow-derived DCs from these lines were infected with MDV in vitro. They were then characterized by cell sorting, and the respective transcriptomes analysed by RNA-seq. The differential expression (DE) of genes revealed a strong immune activation in DCs of the susceptible line, although an inherent immune supremacy was shown by the resistant line, including a significant expression of tumour-suppressor miRNA, gga-mir-124a, in line 6(1) control birds. Enrichment analysis of DE genes revealed high expression of an oncogenic transcription factor, AP-1, in the susceptible line following MDV challenge. This research highlights genes and pathways that may play a role in DCs in determining resistance or susceptibility to MDV infection

Uncovering protein function: from classification to complexes

Almost all interactions and reactions that occur in living organisms involve proteins. The various biological roles of proteins include, but are not limited to, signal transduction, gene transcription, cell death, immune function, structural support, and catalysis of all the chemical reactions that enable organisms to survive. The varied roles of proteins have led to them being dubbed 'the workhorses of all living organisms'. This article discusses the functions of proteins and how protein function is studied in a laboratory setting. In this article, we begin by examining the functions of protein domains, followed by a discussion of some of the major classes of proteins based on their function. We consider protein binding in detail, which is central to protein function. We then examine how protein function can be altered through various mechanisms including post-translational modification, and changes to environment, oligomerisation and mutations. Finally, we consider a handful of the techniques employed in the laboratory to understand and measure the function of proteins