Molecular evolution of bovine Toll-like receptor 2 suggests substitutions of functional relevance.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is accumulating evidence that polymorphism in Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes might be associated with disease resistance or susceptibility traits in livestock. Polymorphic sites affecting TLR function should exhibit signatures of positive selection, identified as a high ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitutions (omega). Phylogeny based models of codon substitution based on estimates of omega for each amino acid position can therefore offer a valuable tool to predict sites of functional relevance. We have used this approach to identify such polymorphic sites within the bovine TLR2 genes from ten Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle breeds. By analysing TLR2 gene phylogeny in a set of mammalian species and a subset of ruminant species we have estima

SUBMITTER: Jann OC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2588590 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature