Molecular analyses of disease pathogenesis: Application of bovine microarrays

• Published in: Veterinary immunology and immunopathology Vol. 105; no. 3; pp. 277 - 287
• Main Authors: Wilson, Heather L., Aich, Palok, Roche, Fiona M., Jalal, Shakiba, Hodgson, Paul D., Brinkman, Fiona S.L., Potter, Andy, Babiuk, Lorne A., Griebel, Philip J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.05.2005
• Subjects: animal pathogens; Animals; Bovine coronavirus; Bovine herpesvirus 1; Bovine rotavirus; Cattle; cattle diseases; Cattle Diseases - immunology; CpG ODN; Functional genomics; gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling - veterinary; Gene Expression Regulation - immunology; host-pathogen relationships; immune response; literature reviews; Microarray; Microarray Analysis - methods; Microarray Analysis - veterinary; microarray technology; Microflora; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis - veterinary; pathogenesis; resistance mechanisms; Rotavirus; signal transduction; Toll-like receptors; viral diseases of animals and humans; Bovine coronavirus; Bovine rotavirus; Toll-like receptors; Microflora; Bovine herpesvirus-1; CpG ODN; Microarray; Functional genomics
• ISSN: 0165-2427; 1873-2534
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vetimm.2005.02.015

The molecular analysis of disease pathogenesis in cattle has been limited by the lack of availability of tools to analyze both host and pathogen responses. These limitations are disappearing with the advent of methodologies such as microarrays that facilitate rapid characterization of global gene expression at the level of individual cells and tissues. The present review focuses on the use of microarray technologies to investigate the functional pathogenomics of infectious disease in cattle. We discuss a number of unique issues that must be addressed when designing both in vitro and in vivo model systems to analyze host responses to a specific pathogen. Furthermore, comparative functional genomic strategies are discussed that can be used to address questions regarding host responses that are either common to a variety of pathogens or unique to individual pathogens. These strategies can also be applied to investigations of cell signaling pathways and the analyses of innate immune responses. Microarray analyses of both host and pathogen responses hold substantial promise for the generation of databases that can be used in the future to address a wide variety of questions. A critical component limiting these comparative analyses will be the quality of the databases and the complete functional annotation of the bovine genome. These limitations are discussed with an indication of future developments that will accelerate the validation of data generated when completing a molecular characterization of disease pathogenesis in cattle.