Novel Polymorphisms and Genetic Characteristics of the Shadow of Prion Protein Gene ( SPRN ) in Cats, Hosts of Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy
Prion diseases are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) caused by pathogenic prion protein (PrP ) originating from normal prion protein (PrP ) and have been reported in several types of livestock and pets. Recent studies have reported that the shadow of prion protein (Sho) encoded by the...
Saved in:
Published in | Viruses Vol. 14; no. 5; p. 981 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
MDPI AG
06.05.2022
MDPI |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Prion diseases are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) caused by pathogenic prion protein (PrP
) originating from normal prion protein (PrP
) and have been reported in several types of livestock and pets. Recent studies have reported that the shadow of prion protein (Sho) encoded by the shadow of prion protein gene (
) interacts with prion protein (PrP) and accelerates prion diseases. In addition, genetic polymorphisms in the
gene are related to susceptibility to prion diseases. However, genetic polymorphisms in the feline
gene and structural characteristics of the Sho have not been investigated in cats, a major host of feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE). We performed amplicon sequencing to identify feline
polymorphisms in the 623 bp encompassing the open reading frame (ORF) and a small part of the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of the
gene. We analyzed the impact of feline
polymorphisms on the secondary structure of
mRNA using RNAsnp. In addition, to find feline-specific amino acids, we carried out multiple sequence alignments using ClustalW. Furthermore, we analyzed the N-terminal signal peptide and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor using SignalP and PredGPI, respectively. We identified three novel SNPs in the feline
gene and did not find strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) among the three SNPs. We found four major haplotypes of the
polymorphisms. Strong LD was not observed between
and
polymorphisms. In addition, we found alterations in the secondary structure and minimum free energy of the mRNA according to the haplotypes in the
polymorphisms. Furthermore, we found four feline-specific amino acids in the feline Sho using multiple sequence alignments among several species. Lastly, the N-terminal signal sequence and cutting site of the Sho protein of cats showed similarity with those of other species. However, the feline Sho protein exhibited the shortest signal sequence and a unique amino acid in the omega-site of the GPI anchor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on genetic polymorphisms of the feline
gene. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1999-4915 1999-4915 |
DOI: | 10.3390/v14050981 |