ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1569669
Genome-Wide Identification and Characterisation of Toll-like Receptors in Chinese Spiny Frog (Quasipaa spinosa)
Provisionally accepted
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China
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Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors essential for immune defense against pathogens, activating the host's immune response by recognizing conserved pathogen structures. The Chinese spiny frog (Quasipaa spinosa), an amphibian native to southern China and northern Vietnam, has been severely impacted by recent infectious disease outbreaks caused by bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections, which threaten the sustainable development of the Q. spinosa farming industry. However, the roles of Q. spinosa TLRs (QsTLRs) in combating these exogenous pathogens have not yet been explored. Using the whole genome data of Q. spinosa, bioinformatics tools were employed to identify and analyze the TLR gene family. The analysis identified 17 members of the TLR gene family in Q. spinosa. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that QsTLRs can be classified into seven subfamilies: TLR1, TLR3, TLR4, TLR5, TLR7, TLR11, and TLR13. Conserved synteny analysis indicated that Q. spinosa is more closely related to Rana temporaria than to Xenopus laevis. Protein structure prediction and motif analysis demonstrated that QsTLRs are relatively conserved in both structure and function. mRNA expression levels of QsTLRs in spleen tissues were measured following stimulation with Elizabethkingia miricola, revealing that 15 QsTLR genes exhibited up-regulation at various time points post-stimulation. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the QsTLR gene family and lay the groundwork for future studies on the immunological functions and vaccine development for Q. spinosa.
Keywords: Quasipaa spinosa, Genome-wide identification, Toll-like receptor, Elizabethkingia miricola, immune response
Received: 01 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Li, Gao, Mo, Zhu, Zhang, Liu, Xiao, Meng and Gao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rishen Liang, College of Animal Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China
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