A partial 517 nucleotide long DQB cDNA was amplified and sequenced from water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and was named as Bubu-DQB*2. The Bubu-DQB*2 showed 96.6% and 92% homologies with cattle (BoLA)-DQB2 and -DQB1 sequences, respectively, whereas 95.6, 96, 90.3, 86 and 90% homologies with sheep, goat, pig, dog and human, respectively. The Bubu-DQB*2 showed 20 nucleotide changes including eight ...

Pathogen-driven balancing selection maintains high genetic diversity in many vertebrates, particularly in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) immune system gene family, which is often associated with disease susceptibility. In large natural populations where subpopulations face different pathogen pressures, the MHC should show greater genetic differentiation within a species than neutral...

In the present study, exon 2 of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II DQB gene from 39 gayals (Bos frontalis) was isolated, characterized and compared with previously reported patterns for other bovidae. It was revealed by sequence analyses that there are 36 DQB exon 2 variants among 39 gayals. These variants exhibited a high degree of nucleotide and amino acid substitutions with most...

In the third sentence of the first paragraph of sub-subsection “Query-Centric Auto-k-NearestNeighbor (QCauto) Method”, within the Materials and Methods section, the variable of expression is incorrect. The correct sentence should read: A BLAST-search of reference sequences similar to the query was then performed, and subsequently, all the neighborhood sequences (Ns) whose distance to the query ...

The autoimmune dermatologic disease pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is associated with the serotypes HLA-DR4 and HLA-DRw6. Based on nucleotide sequence and oligonucleotide probe analysis of enzymatically amplified DNA encoding HLA-DR beta chain (HLA-DRB) and HLA-DQ beta chain (HLA-DQB; henceforth HLA is omitted from designations), we showed previously that the DR4 susceptibility was associated with the...

The genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) play an important role in the vertebrate immune response and are among the most polymorphic genes known in vertebrates. In some marine mammals, MHC genes have been shown to be characterized by low levels of polymorphism compared to terrestrial taxa; this reduction in variation is often explained as a result of lower pathogen pressures in m...

The advance of semantic web and e-learning technologies has provided more opportunities to achieve the goal of collaborative knowledge sharing. It has also facilitated teachers to share their teaching material, tools, and experiences with others through the medium of internet and web technologies. In an earlier paper, we proposed the need for creating a Distributed Question Bank (DQB) by differ...

Genetic variation plays a significant role in maintaining the evolutionary potential of a species. Comparing the patterns of adaptive and neutral diversity in extant populations is useful for understanding the local adaptations of a species. In this study, we determined the fine-scale genetic structure of 6 extant populations of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) using mtDNA and DNA finge...

Class II major histocompatibility complex genes are differentially expressed during cellular activation and differentiation, often in a locus-specific manner. We investigated the differential expression of the HLA-DQB gene, using B cell lines LAZ221 and LAZ388: LAZ221, derived from an early B cell leukemia, expresses HLA-DR but not HLA-DQ: LAZ388, the autologous Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B...