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Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, July 2009, p. 1074-1086, Vol. 16, No. 7
1071-412X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CVI.00157-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Immunological Profiles of Bos taurus and Bos indicus Cattle Infested with the Cattle Tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus
,
Emily K. Piper,1,5
Nicholas N. Jonsson,1,5
Cedric Gondro,3,5
Ala E. Lew-Tabor,2,4,5
Paula Moolhuijzen,4,5
Megan E. Vance,2,5 and
Louise A. Jackson2,5*
Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies, Armidale, Australia 2351,5 The University of Queensland, School of Veterinary Science, Brisbane, Australia 4072,1 Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, Brisbane, Australia 4105,2 The University of New England, The Institute for Genetics and Bioinformatics, Armidale, Australia 2351,3 Murdoch University, Centre for Comparative Genomics, Perth, Australia 61504
Received 7 April 2009/ Returned for modification 12 May 2009/ Accepted 21 May 2009
The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, is a major threat to the improvement of cattle production in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide. Bos indicus cattle are naturally more resistant to infestation with the cattle tick than are Bos taurus breeds, although considerable variation in resistance occurs within and between breeds. It is not known which genes contribute to the resistant phenotype, nor have immune parameters involved in resistance to R. microplus been fully described for the bovine host. This study was undertaken to determine whether selected cellular and antibody parameters of the peripheral circulation differed between tick-resistant Bos indicus and tick-susceptible Bos taurus cattle following a period of tick infestations. This study demonstrated significant differences between the two breeds with respect to the percentage of cellular subsets comprising the peripheral blood mononuclear cell population, cytokine expression by peripheral blood leukocytes, and levels of tick-specific immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) antibodies measured in the peripheral circulation. In addition to these parameters, the Affymetrix bovine genome microarray was used to analyze gene expression by peripheral blood leukocytes of these animals. The results demonstrate that the Bos indicus cattle developed a stabilized T-cell-mediated response to tick infestation evidenced by their cellular profile and leukocyte cytokine spectrum. The Bos taurus cattle demonstrated cellular and gene expression profiles consistent with a sustained innate, inflammatory response to infestation, although high tick-specific IgG1 titers suggest that these animals have also developed a T-cell response to infestation.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, Locked Mail Bag 4, Moorooka, Australia 4105. Phone: 61 (7) 3362 9428. Fax: 61 (7) 3362 9440. E-mail: Louise.Jackson{at}dpi.qld.gov.au
Published ahead of print on 27 May 2009.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://cvi.asm.org/.
Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, July 2009, p. 1074-1086, Vol. 16, No. 7
1071-412X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CVI.00157-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»