Plant and Animal Genomes Conference 2006, San Diego, CA. Abstract W287.
Addressing host-microbe interactions in out bred species is limited by the need to use replicates to overcome genetic variance and issues associated with conducting studies in multiple environments. In order to overcome these issues, we have initiated a study to determine the intrinsic immune response variance in cloned pigs during development and under various challenge conditions. Cloned gilts were created using fetal fibroblast lines developed from UIUC Duroc 2-14 that was used to construct the CHORI-242 BAC library supporting the pig genome sequencing project. In order to establish the level of intrinsic variation, cloned animals were evaluated for various blood parameters and PBL immune responses to TGV and CpG in vitro. In addition, these cloned pigs were challenged in vivo with ascaris antigen. Age, gender and breed controls were used for determining variance resulting from the environment. Immune response expression profiles were determined to LPS responses of the clones compared to controls. Results suggest that clonal quantitative variance is a function of antigenic complexity and dosage (antigenic threshold) and environmental factors contribute to the qualitative differences observed. (This work was supported in part by USDA/NRI-CSREES grant AG2001-35205-11698 and USDA-ARS AG58-5438-2-313).