NR AXGL
AU Happ,G.M.; Huson,H.J.; Beckmen,K.B.; Kennedy,L.J.
TI Prion protein genes in caribou from Alaska
QU Journal of Wildlife Diseases 2007 Apr; 43(2): 224-8
PT journal article; research support, n.i.h., extramural; research support, u.s. gov't, non-p.h.s.
AB Prion protein genes were sequenced in free-ranging Alaska caribou (Rangifer tarandus grantii). Caribou prion alleles are identical or nearly so to those of wapiti, white-tailed deer, and mule deer. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms were detected with substitutions at residues 2 (V-->M), 129 (G-->S), 138 (S-->N), 146 (N-->N), and 169 (V-->M). The 138N codon had been previously reported only in prion pseudogenes of other cervids. In caribou, the 138S and 138N alleles are present at frequencies of approximately 0.7 and 0.3, respectively, and they are seen in both homozygotes and heterozygotes of three geographically separated herds, each a component of the continental metapopulation. Genetics seems to permit the spread of chronic wasting disease from middle-latitude deer to high-latitude caribou in North America.
MH Alaska; Alleles; Animals; Animals, Wild; Genetic Heterogeneity; Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Prion Diseases/epidemiology/pathology/*veterinary; Prions/*genetics; *Reindeer; Wasting Disease, Chronic/epidemiology/pathology
AD Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000, USA. ffgmh@uaf.edu
SP englisch
PO USA