Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Novel alleles in classical major histocompatibility complex class II loci of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Immunogenetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We have investigated the diversity of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci in the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), an important marsupial pest species in New Zealand. Immunocontraceptive vaccines, a method of fertility control that employs the immune system to attack reproductive cells or proteins, are currently being researched as a means of population control for the possum. Variation has been observed in the immune response of individual possums to immunocontraceptives. If this variability is under genetic control, it could compromise vaccine efficacy through preferential selection of animals that fail to mount a significant immune response and remain fertile. The MHC is an important immune region for antigen presentation and as such may influence the response to immunocontraceptives. We used known marsupial MHC sequences to design polymerase chain reaction primers to screen for possum MHC loci. Alpha and beta chains from two class II families, DA and DB, were found in possums throughout New Zealand. Forty new class II MHC alleles were identified in the possum, and the levels of variability in the MHC of this marsupial appear to be comparable to those of eutherian species. Preliminary population surveys showed evidence of clustering/variability in the distribution of MHC alleles in geographically separate locations. The extensive variation demonstrated in possums reinforces the need for further research to assess the risk that such MHC variation poses for long-term immunocontraceptive vaccine efficacy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beitz E (2000) TeXshade: shading and labeling of multiple sequence using LaTeX2e. Bioinformatics 16:135–139

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Belov K, Lam MK-P, Colgan DJ (2004) Marsupial MHC class II beta genes are not orthologous to eutherian beta gene families. J Heredity 95:338–345

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Belov K, Deakin JE, Papenfuss AT, Baker ML, Melman SD, Siddle HV, Gouin N, Goode DL, Sargent TJ, Robinson MD, Wakefield MJ, Mahony S, Cross JGR, Benos PV, Samollow PB, Speed TP, Marshall Graves JA, Miller RD (2006) Reconstructing an ancestral mammalian immune supercomplex from a marsupial major histocompatibility complex. PLoS Biol 4:e46

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Belov K, Sanderson CE, Deakin JE, Wong ESW, Assange D, McColl KA, Gout A, de Bono B, Barrow AD, Speed TP, Trowsdale J, Papenfuss AT (2007) Characterization of the opossum immune genome provides insight into the evolution of the mammalian immune system. Genome Res 17:982–991

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Benton MJ, Ayala FJ (2003) Dating the tree of life. Science 300:1698–1700

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brogdon J, Eckels DD, Davies C, White S, Doyle C (1998) A site for CD4 binding in the beta 1 domain of the MHC class II protein HLA-DR1. J Immunol 161:5472–5480

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Browning TL, Belov K, Miller RD, Eldridge MDB (2004) Molecular cloning and characterization of the polymorphic MHC class II DBB from the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii). Immunogenetics 55:791–795

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buske B, Sternstein I, Reißmann M, Brockmann G (2006) Detection of novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CYP21 gene and association analysis of two SNPs for CYP21 and ESR2 with litter size in a commercial sow population. J Anim Breed Genet 123:343–348

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Butcher S (2000) Impact of possum on primary production. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell RD, Trowsdale J (1993) Map of the human MHC. Immunol Today 14:349–352

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clout M, Ericksen K (2000) Anatomy of a disastrous success: the brushtail possum as an invasive species.. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman J, Caley P (2000) Possums as a reservoir of bovine TB. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman J, Livingstone P (2000) Fewer possums less bovine TB. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper DW, Larsen E (2006) Immunocontraception of mammalian wildlife: ecological and immunogenic issues. Reproduction 132:821–828

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan P (2000) Biological control of possums. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowan P, Sarre SD, Chapman J (2002) Mapping possum dispersal across buffers with genetic markers. Report to the Animal Health Board of New Zealand, pp 27

  • Cui X, Duckworth JA (2005) Mapping of B cell epitopes on the zona pellucida 2 protein of a marsupial, the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Mol Reprod Dev 70:485–493

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Duckworth JA, Wilson K, Cui X, Molinia FC, Cowan PE (2007) Immunogenicity and contraceptive potential of three infertility-relevant zona pellucida 2 epitopes in the marsupial brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Reproduction 133:177–186

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guex N, Peitsch M, Schwede T, Diemand A (2001) DeepView/Swiss-PdbViewer version 3.7, http://expasy.org/spdbv/

  • Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F (2001) MrBayes. Bayesian inference of phylogeny. Bioinformatics 17:754–755

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kanai TH, Tanioka Y, Tanigawa M, Matsumoto Y, Ueda S, Onodera T, Matsumoto Y (1999) Allelic diversity at class II DRB1 and DQB loci of the pig MHC (SLA). Immunogenetics 50:295–300

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly J, Walter L, Trowsdale J (2005) Comparative genomics of major histocompatibility complexes. Immunogenetics 56:683–695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King CM (2005) The handbook of New Zealand mammals, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein J (1986) Natural history of the major histocompatibility complex. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam MK-P, Belov K, Harrison GA, Cooper DW (2001) Cloning of the MHC class II DRB cDNA from the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Immunol Lett 76:31–36

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Luís C, Cothran EG, Oom MM, Bailey E (2004) Major histocompatibility complex locus DRA polymorphism in the endangered Sorraia horse and related breeds. J Anim Breed Genet 122:69–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh SGE, Parham P, Barber LD (2000) The HLA facts book. Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsh SGE, Albert ED, Bodmer WF, Bontrop RE, Dupont B, Erlich HA, Geraghty DE, Hansen JA, Mach B, Mayr WR, Parham P, Petersdorf EW, Sasazuki T, Schreuder GMTH, Strominger JL, Svejgaard A, Terasaki PI (2002) Nomenclature for factors of the HLA system. Tissue Antigens 60:407–464

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mazerolles F, Durandy A, Piatier-Tonneau D, Charron D, Montagnier L, Auffray C, Fischer A (1988) Immunosuppressive properties of synthetic peptides derived from CD4 and HLA-DR antigens. Cell 55:497–504

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller HC, Lambert DM (2004) Genetic drift outweighs balancing selection in shaping post-bottleneck major histocompatibility complex variation in New Zealand robins (Petroicidae). Mol Ecol 13:3709–3721

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Montague TL (2000) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas KB, Nicholas HB, Deerfield DWII (1997) GeneDoc: analysis and visualization of genetic variation. EMBnet News 4:14

    Google Scholar 

  • Payton I (2000) Damage to native forests. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum, biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Posada D, Crandall KA (1998) Modeltest: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics 14:817–818

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP (2003) MrBayes 3: Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics 19:1572–1574

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rozas J, Sanchez-DelBarrio JC, Messeguer X, Rozas R (2003) DnaSP, DNA polymorphism analyses by the coalescent and other methods. Bioinformatics 19:2496–2497

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sadleir R (2000) Evidence of possums as predators of native animals. In: Montague TL (ed) The brushtail possum: biology, impact and management of an introduced marsupial. Manaaki Whenua, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider TD, Stephens RM (1990) Sequence logos: a new way to display consensus sequences. Nucleic Acids Res 18:6097–6100

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider S, Vincek V, Tichy H, Figueroa F, Klein J (1991) MHC class II genes of a marsupial, the red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus): identification of new gene families. Mol Biol Evol 8:753–766

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schwede T, Peitsch MC, Guex N (2007) http://swissmodel.expasy.org//SWISS-MODEL.html

  • Sigurdardóttir S, Borsch C, Gustafsson K, Andersson L (1992) Gene duplications and sequence polymorphism of bovine class II DQB genes. Immunogenetics 35:205–213

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Slade RW, Mayer WE (1995) The expressed class II alpha-chain genes of the marsupial major histocompatibility complex belong to eutherian mammal gene families. Mol Biol Evol 12:441–450

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Slade RW, Hale PT, Francis DI, Marshall Graves JA, Sturm RA (1994) The marsupial MHC: the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, contains an expressed DNA-like gene on chromosome 1. J Mol Evol 38:496–505

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stone WH, Bruun DA, Fuqua C, Glass LC, Reeves A, Holste S, Figueroa F (1999) Identification and sequence analysis of an MHC class II beta gene in a marsupial (Monodelphis domestica). Immunogenetics 49:461–463

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AC, Cowan PE, Fricke BL, Geddes S, Hansen BD, Lam M, Cooper DW (2004) High microsatellite diversity and differential structuring among populations of the introduced common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula, in New Zealand. Genet Res 83:101–111

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson JD, Plewniak F, Jeanmougin F, Gibson TJ, Higgins DG (1997) The CLUSTAL X windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Res 25:4876–4882

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tung KSK, Lou Y-H, Luo A-M, Ang J (1994) Contraceptive vaccine assessment based on a murine ZP3 mini-autoantigen. Reprod Fertil Dev 6:349–355

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wicker LS (1997) Major histocompatibility complex-linked control of autoimmunity. J Exp Med 186:973–975

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Janine Duckworth, Susie Scobie, Jane Arrow, Dr. Robyn Howitt and Dr. Weihong Ji for providing samples. The research was funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology Contract C10X0501.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Centre for Possum Biocontrol, Landcare Research, Auckland, New Zealand

    Olivia J. Holland & Phil E. Cowan

  2. Ecological Genetics Laboratory, Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland, New Zealand

    Olivia J. Holland & Dianne M. Gleeson

  3. Pest Control Technologies, Landcare Research, Private Bag 11052, Manawatu Mail Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Phil E. Cowan

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    Olivia J. Holland & Larry W. Chamley

Authors
  1. Olivia J. Holland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Phil E. Cowan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dianne M. Gleeson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Larry W. Chamley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olivia J. Holland.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequences reported in this article have been submitted to the GenBank nucleotide sequence database and have been assigned accession numbers ranging from EU500871 to EU500875 for the DAA locus, EU500876 to EU500894 for the DAB locus, EU500895 to EU500906 for the DBA locus and EU500907 to EU500911 for the DBB locus.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holland, O.J., Cowan, P.E., Gleeson, D.M. et al. Novel alleles in classical major histocompatibility complex class II loci of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). Immunogenetics 60, 449–460 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-008-0300-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-008-0300-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation