Abstract
Present and future challenges for wild partridge populations include the resistance against possible disease transmission after restocking with captive-reared individuals, and the need to cope with the stress prompted by new dynamic and challenging scenarios. Selection of individuals with the best immune ability may be a good strategy to improve general immunity, and hence adaptation to stress. In this study, non-infectious challenges with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and sheep red blood cells allowed the classification of red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) according to their overall immune responses (IR). Skin from the area of injection of PHA and spleen, both from animals showing extreme high and low IR, were selected to investigate the transcriptional profiles underlying the different ability to cope with pathogens and external aggressions. RNA-seq yielded 97 million raw reads from eight sequencing libraries and approximately 84% of the processed reads were mapped to the reference chicken genome. Differential expression analysis identified 1488 up- and 107 down-regulated loci in individuals with high IR versus low IR. Partridges displaying higher innate IR show an enhanced activation of host defence gene pathways complemented with a tightly controlled desensitization that facilitates the return to cellular homeostasis. These findings indicate that the immune system ability to respond to aggressions (either diseases or stress produced by environmental changes) involves extensive transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations, and expand our understanding on the molecular mechanisms of the avian immune system, opening the possibility of improving disease resistance or robustness using genome assisted selection (GAS) approaches for increased IR in partridges by using genes such as AVN or BF2 as markers. This study provides the first transcriptome sequencing data of the Alectoris genus, a resource for molecular ecology that enables integration of genomic tools in further studies.
Highlights
The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) plays a key ecological role as prey of several predator species, many of them considered at risk such as the Imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) or the Bonelli's eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus) [1,2], and is an important cynegetic species in southern European countries
Given the reduction of wild red-legged partridge populations and the millions of captive-reared partridges released every year in Southern European countries, present and future challenges for wild populations include the resistance against possible disease transmission after restocking, and the need for adaptation to the stress prompted by the introduction into a new habitat
A comprehensive immunogenic picture of partridge transcriptional profiles elicited by noninfectious challenges with PHA and sheep red blood cells (SRBC) has been obtained in this study
Summary
The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) plays a key ecological role as prey of several predator species, many of them considered at risk such as the Imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) or the Bonelli's eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus) [1,2], and is an important cynegetic species in southern European countries. The predicted climatic fluctuations may lead to an increase in the distribution and extent of parasitic and infectious processes, as their natural control by low winter temperatures will be reduced In addition to these problems, restocking with farm partridges has often been criticized for the assumption of an increased risk of disease transmission to wild populations. There is evidence suggesting that medical treatments used in poultry farms to reduce parasite load are ineffective [5,7] These circumstances, along with the ban of antibiotics for disease prevention and growth promotion by the European Union since 2006 [8], may be risk factors for wild populations after restocking with farm animals
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