Comparative jejunal expression of MUC 13 in Indian native pigs differentially adhesive to diarrhoeagenic E. coli.

Escherichia coli are important pathogens among bacterial causes of neonatal piglet diarrhoea. Their adhesion to the intestinal epithelial cells is an essential prerequisite for incidence of diarrhoea, which makes certain animal innately resistant and this adhesion pattern is genetically controlled. Among the candidate genes associated with adhesion pattern, MUC13 is the most likely responsible gene examined in diverse outbred swine populations. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the native Indian (desi) pigs in terms of E. coli adhesion pattern (with Indian isolate) and MUC13 expression profile across adhesion phenotypes. Out of 80 pigs screened, 27 were found to be non-adhesive, 46 adhesive and 7 were weakly adhesive. Effect of sex was found to be significant (P<.05) with non-significant age effect. RT-PCR analysis revealed that although, porcine MUC13 mRNA expression was highest in adhesive (2.67±0.69 fold), moderate in weakly adhesive (1.22±0.35 fold) and low levels in non-adhesive (calibrator) phenotypes, differences were statistically non-significant (P<.05). While the availability of non-adhesive phenotypes among Indian desi pigs implicates abundance of input genetic resources to start a breeding programme against diarrhoea, the descending expression of MUC 13 in adhesive and weakly adhesive samples speculates its important role in adhesion of E. coli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]