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Article
Open AccessThe swan genome and transcriptome, it is not all black and white
The Australian black swan (Cygnus atratus) is an iconic species with contrasting plumage to that of the closely related northern hemisphere white swans. The relative geographic isolation of the black swan may hav...
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Article
Open AccessAn argument for pandemic risk management using a multidisciplinary One Health approach to governance: an Australian case study
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant global impact. However, COVID-19 is just one of several high-impact infectious diseases that emerged from wildlife a...
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Mammalia: Chiroptera: Immunology of Bats
Bats are a large and diverse group comprising approximately 20% of all living mammalian species. They are the only mammals capable of powered flight and have many unique characteristics, including long lifespa...
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Article
Open AccessInsights into the ancestral organisation of the mammalian MHC class II region from the genome of the pteropid bat, Pteropus alecto
Bats are an extremely successful group of mammals and possess a variety of unique characteristics, including their ability to co-exist with a diverse range of pathogens. The major histocompatibility complex (M...
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Article
Open AccessPhenotypic and functional characterization of the major lymphocyte populations in the fruit-eating bat Pteropus alecto
The unique ability of bats to act as reservoir for viruses that are highly pathogenic to humans suggests unique properties and functional characteristics of their immune system. However, the lack of bat specif...
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Article
Open AccessEvolution and comparative analysis of the bat MHC-I region
Bats are natural hosts to numerous viruses and have ancient origins, having diverged from other eutherian mammals early in evolution. These characteristics place them in an important position to provide insigh...
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Article
Open AccessMarsupials and monotremes possess a novel family of MHC class I genes that is lost from the eutherian lineage
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genes are found in the genomes of all jawed vertebrates. The evolution of this gene family is closely tied to the evolution of the vertebrate genome. Family membe...
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Article
Open AccessProteomics informed by transcriptomics reveals Hendra virus sensitizes bat cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis
Bats are a major reservoir of emerging infectious viruses. Many of these viruses are highly pathogenic to humans however bats remain asymptomatic. The mechanism by which bats control viral replication is unkno...
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Article
Open AccessCharacterisation of novel microRNAs in the Black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) by deep sequencing
Bats are a major source of new and emerging viral diseases. Despite the fact that bats carry and shed highly pathogenic viruses including Ebola, Nipah and SARS, they rarely display clinical symptoms of infecti...
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Article
Studying immunity to zoonotic diseases in the natural host — kee** it real
Zoonotic viruses pose a serious threat to human and animal health. Studying the immune response to zoonotic pathogens in the natural reservoir hosts, rather th...
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Article
Open AccessThe immune gene repertoire of an important viral reservoir, the Australian black flying fox
Bats are the natural reservoir host for a range of emerging and re-emerging viruses, including SARS-like coronaviruses, Ebola viruses, henipaviruses and Rabies viruses. However, the mechanisms responsible for ...
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Article
Immunoglobulin heavy chain diversity in Pteropid bats: evidence for a diverse and highly specific antigen binding repertoire
Bats are the natural host reservoir for range of emerging and re-emerging viruses, many of which cause significant morbidity and mortality in other mammals, yet appear to result in no clinical consequences for...
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Chapter
Marsupial Immunoglobulin and T Cell Receptor Genomics
The development of marsupial genomic resources has provided a wealth of information for the study of the development and function of the adaptive immune system in these remarkable mammals. Here is reviewed the...
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Article
Open AccessComparative genomic analysis and evolution of the T cell receptor loci in the opossum Monodelphis domestica
All jawed-vertebrates have four T cell receptor (TCR) chains: alpha (TRA), beta (TRB), gamma (TRG) and delta (TRD). Marsupials appear unique by having an additional TCR: mu (TRM). The evolutionary origin of TR...
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Article
Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences
We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian (‘marsupial’) species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique persp...
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Article
Open AccessAnalysis of a set of Australian northern brown bandicoot expressed sequence tags with comparison to the genome sequence of the South American grey short tailed opossum
Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have been used for rapid gene discovery in a variety of organisms and provide a valuable resource for whole genome annotation. Although the genome of one marsupial, the opossum Mono...
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Article
Isolation of major histocompatibility complex Class I genes from the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays an essential role in the adaptive immune system of vertebrates through antigen recognition. Although MHC genes are found in all vertebrates, the MHC region is d...
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Article
Modo-UG, a marsupial nonclassical MHC class I locus
Modo-UG is a class I gene located in the MHC of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica, the gray, short-tailed opossum. Modo-UG is expressed as three alternatively spliced mRNA forms, all of...
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Article
Divergent T-cell receptor delta chains from marsupials
Complementary DNAs (cDNAs) encoding T-cell receptor delta (TRD) chains from the northern brown bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus, were identified while sequencing expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a thymus cDNA libr...
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Article
Relationships Among the Families and Orders of Marsupials and the Major Mammalian Lineages Based on Recombination Activating Gene-1
Controversies remain over the relationships among several of the marsupial families and between the three major extant lineages of mammals: Eutheria (placentals), Metatheria (marsupials), and Prototheria (mono...
