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Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids caused by a misfolded variant of the normal cellular prion protein, and it is closely related to sheep scrapie. Variations in a host’s prion gene, PRNP, and its primary protein structure dramatically af...

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Autores principales: Haley, Nicholas, Donner, Rozalyn, Merrett, Kahla, Miller, Matthew, Senior, Kristen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8471411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34573378
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12091396
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author Haley, Nicholas
Donner, Rozalyn
Merrett, Kahla
Miller, Matthew
Senior, Kristen
author_facet Haley, Nicholas
Donner, Rozalyn
Merrett, Kahla
Miller, Matthew
Senior, Kristen
author_sort Haley, Nicholas
collection PubMed
description Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids caused by a misfolded variant of the normal cellular prion protein, and it is closely related to sheep scrapie. Variations in a host’s prion gene, PRNP, and its primary protein structure dramatically affect susceptibility to specific prion disorders, and breeding for PRNP variants that prevent scrapie infection has led to steep declines in the disease in North American and European sheep. While resistant alleles have been identified in cervids, a PRNP variant that completely prevents CWD has not yet been identified. Thus, control of the disease in farmed herds traditionally relies on quarantine and depopulation. In CWD-endemic areas, depopulation of private herds becomes challenging to justify, leading to opportunities to manage the disease in situ. We developed a selective breeding program for farmed white-tailed deer in a high-prevalence CWD-endemic area which focused on reducing frequencies of highly susceptible PRNP variants and introducing animals with less susceptible variants. With the use of newly developed primers, we found that breeding followed predictable Mendelian inheritance, and early data support our project’s utility in reducing CWD prevalence. This project represents a novel approach to CWD management, with future efforts building on these findings.
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spelling pubmed-84714112021-09-27 Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer Haley, Nicholas Donner, Rozalyn Merrett, Kahla Miller, Matthew Senior, Kristen Genes (Basel) Article Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids caused by a misfolded variant of the normal cellular prion protein, and it is closely related to sheep scrapie. Variations in a host’s prion gene, PRNP, and its primary protein structure dramatically affect susceptibility to specific prion disorders, and breeding for PRNP variants that prevent scrapie infection has led to steep declines in the disease in North American and European sheep. While resistant alleles have been identified in cervids, a PRNP variant that completely prevents CWD has not yet been identified. Thus, control of the disease in farmed herds traditionally relies on quarantine and depopulation. In CWD-endemic areas, depopulation of private herds becomes challenging to justify, leading to opportunities to manage the disease in situ. We developed a selective breeding program for farmed white-tailed deer in a high-prevalence CWD-endemic area which focused on reducing frequencies of highly susceptible PRNP variants and introducing animals with less susceptible variants. With the use of newly developed primers, we found that breeding followed predictable Mendelian inheritance, and early data support our project’s utility in reducing CWD prevalence. This project represents a novel approach to CWD management, with future efforts building on these findings. MDPI 2021-09-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8471411/ /pubmed/34573378 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12091396 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Haley, Nicholas
Donner, Rozalyn
Merrett, Kahla
Miller, Matthew
Senior, Kristen
Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title_full Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title_fullStr Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title_full_unstemmed Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title_short Selective Breeding for Disease-Resistant PRNP Variants to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease in Farmed Whitetail Deer
title_sort selective breeding for disease-resistant prnp variants to manage chronic wasting disease in farmed whitetail deer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8471411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34573378
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12091396
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