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Genetic diversity in immune response

Reference	BBS/E/I/00001852
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Muhammad Munir
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	582,950
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	08/07/2013
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	44 months

Abstract

Interaction of virus with the host is fundamental to initiate an infection and to complete a successful replication cycle, however, the outcome of this initiation depends up several factors of both virus and host origins. Among host responses, the most profound and first-line-of-defense is the induction of innate immune responses mediated by the central player, type I interferons (IFN). Although induction of IFNs is generic but the terminal actions can be host and pathogen specific. In this context, chicken is unique since even in the updated version of chicken genome, it appears that chicken lack kinase Tyk2, STAT2 and IRF9, which are crucial elements in JAK/STAT pathway (IFN signalling). However, interestingly, ectopic expression of duck RIG-I in chicken cells reconstituted the downstream signalling pathway, with higher induction of several interferon stimulated genes (ISGs), indicating the presence of potent mechanism of ISGs transcriptional regulation in chicken while apparently lacking IRF3 and RIG-I genes. It would therefore be interesting to study the ways chickens have evolutionarily adapted other compensatory mechanisms compared to ducks, turkeys and gees. Aims of my research activities include understanding the innate immune response in different avian hosts that range from sensing of viruses to terminal IFN effectors mediated by myriad interferon stimulated genes. Currently, I have established large-scale, genome-wide and high throughput screen platforms to investigate, both generically and specifically, the interaction of viruses with host immune responses and the ways viruses have adapted to circumvent these responses using proof-of-the-concept avian paramyxoviruses (different pathotypes of Newcastle disease virus).

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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