Acute involution in the tammar wallaby: identification of genes and putative novel milk proteins implicated in mammary gland function.

Abstract

Marsupials provide a suitable alternative model to studying mammary gland involution. They have evolved a different reproductive strategy from eutherians, giving birth to an altricial young and secreting milk that changes in composition during lactation. In this study, we used a marsupial-specific EST microarray to identify 47 up-regulated genes during mammary gland involution in the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii). These include the pro-apoptotic tumour necrosis factor receptor superfamily 21 (TNFRSF21) gene, whose expression in the mammary gland has not previously been reported. Genes encoding putative novel milk proteins which may protect the mammary gland from infection were also found to be up-regulated, such as amiloride binding protein 1 (ABP1), complement component 1QB (C1QB), complement component 4A (C4A) and colony stimulating factor 2 receptor β (CSF2Rβ). Our results show that the marsupial reproductive strategy was successfully exploited to identify genes and putative novel milk proteins implicated in mammary gland involution.

• Authors: Elie Khalil, Matthew Robert Digby, Peter Campbell Thomson, Christophe Lefèvre, Sonia Louise Mailer, Cate Pooley, Kevin Roy Nicholas
• Journal: Genomics (Genomics) Vol. 97 Issue 6 Pg. 372-8 (Jun 2011) ISSN: 1089-8646 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 21419215 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins
• Milk Proteins

Topics

• Animals
• Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins (genetics)
• Cattle
• Female
• Gene Expression Regulation
• Immunogenetic Phenomena
• Macropodidae (genetics)
• Mammary Glands, Animal (immunology, physiology)
• Mice
• Milk Proteins (genetics)
• Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
• Transcription, Genetic
• Up-Regulation