Chapters authored
Genetics of Disease Resistance in Chicken
Although poultry industry has gained momentum during the last few decades, there are still various impediments like improper infrastructure, unscientific management and above all various deadly infectious diseases which incur huge economic losses on poultry industry. These diseases include viral diseases like Avian Influenza, Marek’s Disease, New Castle disease and bacterial diseases like Colibacillosis, Pasteurellosis and Salmonellosis, etc. Development of disease resistant poultry has been found successful practice over the use of drugs or vaccines for disease control. Studies involving genome wide associations to figure out certain candidate genes that are involved in disease resistance have also been carried out. Single nucleotide polymorphism studies to unveil the mechanisms underlying disease resistance in chicken show that SNPs and other candidate gene approaches play a vital role in providing disease resistance. Also, understanding the genes and biological pathways that confer genetic resistance to various infections will lead towards the development of more resistant commercial poultry flocks or improved vaccines against various diseases. This chapter shall focus on various factors involved in disease resistance in chicken that interact with the pathogen and provide resistance against the pathogen.
Part of the book: Application of Genetics and Genomics in Poultry Science
Immunopathogenesis of Salmonellosis
Salmonella is an intracellular pathogenic, gram-negative, facultative anaerobe and non-spore-forming and usually a motile bacillus that leads to salmonellosis in the host. It is a common food-borne disease that ranges from local gastrointestinal inflammation and diarrhoea to life-threatening typhoid fever and presents usually a serious threat to public health due to its socio-economic value. Inadequate sanitation and impure water help in the propagation of this disease. Despite advancement in the sanitation standards, Salmonella enters the food chain and affects communities globally. There is an immediate need to develop improved vaccines to minimise Salmonella-related illnesses. Some Salmonella serovars infect a wide range of hosts, while others are known to be host restricted. Many different factors determine the adaptability and host specificity of Salmonella. The host-pathogen interactions play a unique role in Salmonella invasion and progression which needs to be studied in detail. This chapter shall focus on our current understanding of Salmonella invasion, pathogenesis and interactions with the host, host specificity and adaptability.
Part of the book: New Insight into Brucella Infection and Foodborne Diseases
Salmonella Infection and Pathogenesis
Salmonella genus represents most common food borne pathogens isolated from food producing animals and is responsible for causing zoonotic infections in humans and other animal species, including birds. As a result, Salmonella diseases are among the most common problems for the humans, animals, and food industry around the world. Despite rising attention about other pathogens, Salmonella continues to be the most prominent cause of food borne disease worldwide. Salmonella can be transferred to humans at any point along the farm-to-fork chain, most commonly through infected animal-derived foods such as poultry and poultry related products (eggs), pork, fish, and so on. Some Salmonella serotypes have been confined to a single serovar and are known as “host-restricted” while the others have a wide host spectral range and are known as “host-adapted” serotypes. Globally Salmonella infection causes huge mortality and the infection plays a huge role in immune response by evolving multiple mechanism to subvert immunity to its own benefit. Numerous infectivity markers and determinants have indeed been reported to play essential role in Salmonella pathogenesis to colonize its host by invading and avoiding the host’s intestinal shielding system.
Part of the book: Enterobacteria
Long Non-Coding RNAs: Biogenesis, Mechanism of Action and Role in Different Biological and Pathological Processes
RNA or ribonucleic acid constitutes of nucleotides, which are ribose sugars coupled to nitrogenous bases and phosphate groups. Nitrogenous bases include adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil. Messenger RNA, ribosomal RNA and Transfer RNA are three main types of RNA that are involved in protein synthesis. Apart from its primary role in synthesis of protein, RNA comes in variety of forms like snRNA, miRNA, siRNA, antisense RNA, LncRNA etc., that are involved in DNA replication, post-transcriptional modification, and gene regulation etc. LncRNAs regulate gene expression by various ways including at, transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational, post-translational and epigenetic levels by interacting principally with mRNA, DNA, protein, and miRNA. Among other biological functions, they are involved in chromatin remodelling, transcriptional interference, transcriptional activation, mRNA translation and RNA processing. In this chapter we shall be discussing the origin of lncRNAs, their biogenesis, their mechanism of action and their role in many biological and pathological processes like epigenetics, genome imprinting, several cancers and autoimmune diseases.
Part of the book: Recent Advances in Noncoding RNAs