Characteristics of cat MHC genes and application for veterinary medicine field

Abstract

Association study of cat MHC (Feline Leukocyte Antigen; FLA) genes with infectious and autoimmune diseases is expected for the development of veterinary medicine, because cats are one of the major companion animals in Japan. However, detailed polymorphism information of the FLA genes is limited in comparison to other animals, although polymorphism analysis in FLA genes has been in progress for a long time. To better understand the causes, we outlined characteristics of cats as companion, experimental and wild animal, a history of genomic analyses of the FLA genomic region and polymorphism analyses, and diseases and infections that may be associated with FLA in this review.