Original Scientific Article
Evaluation of resistance and susceptibility to prion diseases in Pelibuey sheep from Mexico
Fabiola Rodríguez-Andrade ,
Arnulfo Villanueva-Castillo * ,
Cesar Feliciano Pastelin-Rojas ,
Raymundo Avila-Benitez ,
Ruby Sandy Moreno-Mejía ,
José Alfredo Galicia-Domínguez

Mac Vet Rev 2023; 46 (1): 17 - 26

10.2478/macvetrev-2022-0030

Received: 26 April 2022

Received in revised form: 28 November 2022

Accepted: 01 December 2022

Available Online First: 28 December 2022

Published on: 15 March 2023

Correspondence: Arnulfo Villanueva-Castillo, arnulfo.villanueva@correo.buap.mx
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Abstract

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of neurodegenerative diseases with a chronic and fatal course, which are caused by a misfolded form of the cellular prion protein that is encoded by the host. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the resistance and genetic susceptibility to prion diseases in Pelibuey sheep from Mexico. The sequences of 99 Pelibuey sheep from the central and southwestern regions of Mexico were analyzed to determine the polymorphisms related to resistance and genetic susceptibility to scrapie, the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test and the D-Tajima test was used to identify the effect of evolutionary forces on the PRNP gene. Twelve non-synonymous polymorphisms Q101R, M112T, A116P, G127A, A136V, M137T, L141F, H143R, R154H, Q171R, Q171H, N176K were detected, in addition two synonymous substitutions 231R (agg/cgg) and 237L (ctc/ctg) were found. As a result of the sequence analysis, the ARR allele was not  under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, indicating that there is an evolutionary force at work, and the D-Tajima suggest the existence of purifying genetic selection. In conclusion, Pelibuey sheep exhibit genotypes for the PRNP gene that make them resistant to developing classic scrapie; at least 98% of the population is a carrier of an allele related to scrapie resistance; while for atypical scrapie there is a very high probability that an outbreak occurred in the herds, since the ARQ allele in combination with the L substitution at codon 141 confers susceptibility to carrier sheep.

Keywords: PRNP gene, polymorphisms, genetic susceptibility, genetic selection, Pelibuey

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Copyright

© 2022 Rodríguez-Andrade F. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no potential lict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 46, Issue 1, Pages 17-26, e-ISSN 1857-7415, p-ISSN 1409-7621, DOI: 10.2478/macvetrev-2022-0030, 2022

The all content of the Macedonian Veterinary Review, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.