Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (9): 3722-3734.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.09.013

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Molecular Evolution and Expression Patterns of a Multigene Family of Toll-like Receptors in Ruminants

MA Shujuan1, XU Yijie2, HE Ke2, MA Ruifeng1, ZHU Ying1*   

  1. 1. Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Research Institute, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610041, China;
    2. College of Animal Science and Technology/College of Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou 311300, China
  • Received:2023-03-14 Published:2023-09-22

Abstract: The study aimed to understand the molecular evolutionary relationships and expression analysis of the multigene family of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in ruminants. The TLR1-10 genes was systematically identified in ruminants based on the genomes of 53 ruminant species from 6 families, their chromosomal localization and gene structure, evolutionary relationships, selection pressure (ω) was analyzed, and the expression patterns of TLR genes was clarified combined with transcriptomic data in various tissues. The results showed that:1) TLR1-10 in ruminants were all single-copy genes, which were classified into TLR1 (TLR1/6/10), TLR2, TLR4, TLR3 (TLR3/5) and TLR7 (TLR7/8/9) subfamilies according to evolutionary relationships. 2) The 10 TLR genes in ruminants as a whole underwent purifying selection (ω<1), but a total of 35 amino acid loci were subject to strong positive selection; bovidae had higher ω values and a higher proportion of positive selection loci than cervidae, and non-viral TLRs had higher ω and more positive selection loci than viral TLRs, suggesting that cervidae TLRs as well as viral TLRs were subject to stronger evolutionary binding. 3) In sheep, all 10 TLR genes were expressed in immune tissues, with TLR2 and TLR9 expressed at relatively high levels in PBMC. The results suggest that the gene family of ruminant TLRs is relatively conserved at the evolutionary level and both are subject to strong purifying selection, with TLR2 and TLR9 playing a major immune role in PBMC tissues.

Key words: Toll-like receptor, ruminant, phylogeny, selection pressure, expression pattern

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