Johne's disease in cattle is associated with enhanced expression of genes encoding IL-5, GATA-3, tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases 1 and 2, and factors promoting apoptosis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Infection of ruminants with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis) leads to a chronic and often fatal granulomatous enteritis known as Johne's disease. Most infections with M. paratuberculosis occur during the first 6 months of life, and there is some evidence for transmission in utero. Once established, infections typically exist in a subclinical state for several years. Recent gene-expression profiling studies suggested the hypothesis that inherent gene-expression profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from M. paratuberculosis-infected cattle may be different than expression profiles in PBMCs from uninfected controls. If true, this would suggest that it is possible to identify an M. paratuberculosis infection "signature" through transcriptional profiling of peripheral immune cells. In addition, identification of groups or classes of genes showing inherently different expression in PBMCs from M. paratuberculosis-infected cattle relative to PBMCs from uninfected controls might highlight important interactions between this pathogen and the host immune system. In this report, we describe studies aimed at testing this hypothesis. Our novel results indicate that, indeed expression profiles of at least 42 genes are inherently different in freshly isolated PBMCs from M. paratuberculosis-infected cattle when compared to similar cells from uninfected controls. Gene-expression differences observed following microarray analysis were verified and expanded upon by quantitative real-time PCR (Q-RT-PCR). Our results indicate that T cells within PBMCs from M. paratuberculosis-infected cows have adopted a predominant Th 2-like phenotype (enhanced expression of IL-5, GATA 3, and possibly IL-4 mRNA), that cells within infected cow PBMCs may exhibit tissue remodeling deficiencies through higher expression of tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP) 1 and TIMP2 RNA and lower expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 14 RNA than similar cells from healthy controls, and that cells within the PBMC population of M. paratuberculosis-infected cows are likely poised for rapid apoptosis (upregulation of CIDE-A, Bad, TNFRI, and Fas).

Bovine mammary gene expression profiling using a cDNA microarray enhanced for mammary-specific transcripts.

A cDNA microarray resource enhanced for transcripts specific to the bovine mammary gland (BMAM) has been developed and used in pilot studies to examine gene expression profiles in the mammary gland. One goal driving development of this resource was to shed some light on the pathways and mechanisms specifically related to bovine mammary gland growth and development. To accomplish this, gene expression patterns from bovine adipose, liver, adrenal, lymph, spleen, thymus, gut, and developing mammary tissue were compared using the BMAM microarray. We have thus identified a putative set of 16 genes being preferentially expressed in developing mammary gland. Another of our long-term goals is to elucidate the genes and pathways associated with bovine lactation and involution and to use these as a model for human mammary gland development as it relates to human breast cancer risks. To begin this process, we conducted a pilot study, comparing gene expression profiles of lactating bovine mammary tissue against nonlactating tissue on the BMAM microarray. Our results have yielded many novel and interesting genes exhibiting differential expression in lactating mammary tissue, including oncogenes (VAV3, C-myc), mediators of apoptosis (Caspase 8), and cell cycle regulators (LASP1).

Development of a porcine brain cDNA library, EST database, and microarray resource.

Recent developments in expressed sequence tag (EST) and cDNA microarray technology have had a dramatic impact on the ability of scientists to study responses of thousands of genes to internal and external stimuli. In neurobiology, studies of the human brain have been expanding rapidly by use of functional genomics techniques. To enhance these studies and allow use of a porcine brain model, a normalized porcine brain cDNA library (PBL) has been generated and used as a base for EST discovery and microarray generation. In this report, we discuss initial sequence analysis of 965 clones from this resource. Our data revealed that library normalization successfully reduced the number of clones representing highly abundant cDNA species and overall clone redundancy. Cluster analysis revealed over 800 unique cDNA species representing a redundancy rate for the normalized library of 6.9% compared with 29.4% before normalization. Sequence information, BLAST results, and TIGR cluster matches for these ESTs are publicly available via a web-accessible database (http://nbfgc.msu.edu). A cDNA microarray was created using 877 unique porcine brain EST amplicons spotted in triplicate on glass slides. This microarray was assessed by performing a series of experiments designed to test hybridization efficiency and false-positive rate. Our results indicate that the PBL cDNA microarray is a robust tool for studies of brain gene expression using swine as a model system.

Development and testing of a high-density cDNA microarray resource for cattle.

A cDNA microarray resource has been developed with the goal of providing integrated functional genomics resources for cattle. The National Bovine Functional Genomics Consortium's (NBFGC) expressed sequence tag (EST) collection was established in 2001 to develop resources for functional genomics research. The NBFGC EST collection and microarray contains 18,263 unique transcripts, derived from many different tissue types and various physiologically important states within these tissues. The NBFGC microarray has been tested for false-positive rates using self-self hybridizations and was shown to yield robust results in test microarray experiments. A web-accessible database has been established to provide pertinent data related to NBFGC clones, including sequence data, BLAST results, and ontology information. The NBFGC microarray represents the largest cDNA microarray for a livestock species prepared to date and should prove to be a valuable tool in studying genome-wide gene expression in cattle.