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The equine CD1 gene family is the largest and most diverse yet identified

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Abstract

The CD1 family is a group of non-polymorphic MHC class I-like molecules that present lipid-based antigens to T cells. Previous work in our laboratory demonstrated that cytotoxic T lymphocytes from immune adult horses recognize lipids from the cell wall of an important equine pathogen, Rhodococcus equi. These findings suggest an important role for the equine CD1 antigen presentation system in protective immune responses to microbial pathogens in the horse. In this study, we characterized and mapped the equine CD1 gene cluster. The equine genome was found to contain 13 complete CD1 genes; seven genes were classified as homologues of human CD1a, two CD1b, one CD1c, one CD1d, and two CD1e, making it the largest CD1 family to date. All but one of the eqCD1 molecules were expressed in all antigen-presenting cells investigated. The major amino acid differences between equine CD1 isoforms are located in the predicted antigen binding site, suggesting that a variety of lipid antigens can be presented. R. equi survives and replicates within professional phagocytes by arresting phagosome maturation between the early endosome and late phagosome. Based on the absence of a tyrosine sorting motif in all eqCD1a, CD1a molecules are predicted to co-localize with R. equi in the early endosome. Here, they could acquire lipid antigen and present it to T lymphocytes. The extraordinarily large number of CD1 molecules in the horse may reflect their crucial role in immunity to R. equi.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the technical assistance of David Herndon and Siddra Hines. We thank Emma Karel and Casey Lawson for their animal handling expertise. Special thanks to Wendy Brown and Robert Mealey for manuscript review. This work was funded by Morris Animal Foundation Grant D10EQ-046 and by United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service 5348-32000-034-00D.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and all animal studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee experiments and comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, P.O. Box 647040, Pullman, WA, 99164-7040, USA

    Robson G. Dossa, Debra C. Alperin & Stephen A. Hines

  2. College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, 2407 River Drive, Knoxville, TN, 37996-4546, USA

    Melissa T. Hines

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  1. Robson G. Dossa
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  2. Debra C. Alperin
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Correspondence to Stephen A. Hines.

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Dossa, R.G., Alperin, D.C., Hines, M.T. et al. The equine CD1 gene family is the largest and most diverse yet identified. Immunogenetics 66, 33–42 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-013-0741-6

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