M Khosravi - Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran,Iran
Gh Nikbakht - Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran,Iran

BACKGROUND:Class II transactivator (CIITA) is a dominant transcriptional element, controlling numerous genes in the immune system. CIITA is expressed in a constitutive pattern in antigen presenting cells although its expression can occur in other cell types. Since the revelation of CIITA, there have been considerable advances toward understanding its role as an activator of MHC II genes in humans and mice; nonetheless, there is a lack of published data for this gene in other animals suchas chickens. OBJECTIVES: The goals of this study were to determine the expression of class II transactivator (CIITA) in chicken and analysis of the CIITA gene sequence between four Iranian indigenous chicken ecotypes. METHODS:After securing the research accuracy and optimization of reaction conditions,cDNA and DNA samples of gene were obtained from four Iranian indigenous chicken ecotypes. The PCR and RT-PCR products were sequenced and the data were analyzed by bioinformatics software. RESULTS: Comparison of the sequencing results with the reference sequence of the red jungle fowl revealed that these sequences belonged to the predicted CIITA gene. There was a high conservation rate in the sequence of CIITA. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that like other species, CIITA is transcripted in chickens' immune system cells. Further studies on chickens must be done to reveal CIITAroles in immune responses of chickens.

chicken, CIITA gene expression,immunity