Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Functional Genomics Of Bovine Gamma/Delta T Cells

Mitchell S. Abrahamsen¹ , Wendy C. Brown² , Mark A. Jutila³

¹  Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences University of Minnesota St. Paul, MN 55108 USA

²  Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164

³  Veterinary Molecular Biology Montana State University Bozeman, MT 59717

T cells expressing the gamma/delta T cell receptor have been found in most vertebrate species, and they predominate in the blood of young ruminants, suggesting that they are particularly important for the immune defense of these animals. This USDA IFAFS funded project employed large-scale genomic approaches to further our understanding of the role of gamma/delta T cells in cattle. This has been accomplished through the generation of conventional EST libraries from resting and ConA/IL-2 activated splenic gamma/delta T cells, SAGE libraries from tissue-specific gamma/delta T cell subsets, microarray analysis of gamma/delta T cell subsets in blood and mucosal lymphatic cells following infection with C. parvum, S typhimurium, and rotavirus, and cloned, disease-specific gamma/delta T cell lines. In addition, a WEB-based genomics resource for bovine gamma/delta T cells has been development. This effort has provided key insights into the biological potential and response of gamma/delta T cells cells to activation signals and infectious disease.