Multi-Species Use of an Avian Microarray
Date
2009-05
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Ducks represent a natural host and reservoir for avian influenza virus and significant differences are observed in the biological response of ducks to strains of avian influenza recovered from other avian species. The objective of this project was to study the immune response of ducks at the transcriptional level to three speciesadapted strains of avian influenza. Our goal was to determine if differences in the innate immune response to species-adapted strains of avian influenza might suggest a contribution to these observed biological differences. Microarray analysis revealed that a common set of genes exhibited significant expression in response to chicken-, duck- and turkey- derived strains of avian influenza, while many other genes exhibited a significant response to only one of the species-adapted strains. Overall, similar expression values were seen in cytokines and chemokines, and genes involved in the TLR and NF!" activation pathways in response to the species-adapted strains of avian influenza. Several genes important in the immune response of ducks to avian influenza that exhibited different expression values when infected with species-adapted strains were identified that may correlate with the differences seen in the biological response of ducks to the different strains of avian influenza.