Lambs with Scrapie Susceptible Genotypes Have Higher Postnatal Survival

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2007 Nov 29

PMID 18043743

Citations 10

Authors

Rami M Sawalha

Susan Brotherstone

Joanne Conington

Beatriz Villanueva

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Prion protein (PrP) alleles associated with scrapie susceptibility persist in many sheep populations even with high frequencies despite centuries of selection against them. This suggests that scrapie susceptibility alleles have a pleiotropic effect or are associated with fitness or other traits that have been subject to selection.

Methodology/principal Findings: We genotyped all lambs in two scrapie-free Scottish Blackface sheep flocks for polymorphisms at codons 136, 154 and 171 of the PrP gene. We tested potential associations of the PrP genotype with lamb viability at birth and postnatal survival using a complementary log-log link function and a Weibull proportional hazard model, respectively. Here we show there is an association between PrP genotype, as defined by polymorphisms at codons 154 ad 171, and postnatal lamb survival in the absence of scrapie. Sheep carrying the wild-type ARQ allele have higher postnatal survival rates than sheep carrying the more scrapie-resistant alleles (ARR or AHQ).

Conclusion: The PrP genotypes associated with higher susceptibility to scrapie are associated with improved postnatal survival in the absence of the disease. This association helps to explain the existence, and in many instances the high frequency, of the ARQ allele in sheep populations.

Citing Articles

Excessive replacement changes drive evolution of global sheep prion protein (PRNP) sequences.

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Spatial heterogeneity of prion gene polymorphisms in an area recently infected by chronic wasting disease.

Miller W, Walter W Prion. 2019; 13(1):65-76.

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Pathogen-mediated selection in free-ranging elk populations infected by chronic wasting disease.

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The prion protein family: a view from the placenta.

Makzhami S, Passet B, Halliez S, Castille J, Moazami-Goudarzi K, Duchesne A Front Cell Dev Biol. 2014; 2:35.

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