Expression and phylogeny of multidrug resistance protein 2 and 4 in African white backed vulture (Gyps africanus)

Diclofenac toxicity in old world vultures is well described in the literature by both the severity of the toxicity induced and the speed of death. While the mechanism of toxicity remains unknown at present, the necropsy signs of gout suggests primary renal involvement at the level of the uric acid excretory pathways. From information in the chicken and man, uric acid excretion is known to be a complex process that involves a combination of glomerular filtration and active tubular excretion. For the proximal convoluted tubules excretion occurs as a two-step process with the basolateral cell membrane using the organic anion transporters and the apical membrane using the multidrug resistant protein to transport uric acid from the blood into the tubular fluid. With uric acid excretion seemingly inhibited by diclofenac, it becomes important to characterize these transporter mechanism at the species level. With no information being available on the molecular characterization/expression of MRPs of Gyps africanus, for this study we used next generation sequencing, and Sanger sequencing on the renal tissue of African white backed vulture (AWB), as the first step to establish if the MRPs gene are expressed in AWB. In silico analysis was conducted using different software to ascertain the function of the latter genes. The sequencing results revealed that the MRP2 and MRP4 are expressed in AWB vultures. Phylogeny of avian MRPs genes confirms that vultures and eagles are closely related, which could be attributed to having the same ancestral genes and foraging behavior. In silico analysis confirmed the transcribed proteins would transports anionic compounds and glucose.