Co-evolution of the immune system and the fetal/maternal interface in viviparous mammals

免疫系统能够精确地将自身组织与外来入侵者区分开来，其目标通常是保护前者并摧毁后者。 这给那些在长期怀孕后出生的动物带来了问题。 近60年来，免疫系统如何避免攻击基因上半外来的胚胎一直是免疫学的核心问题。 利用最先进的高通量基因测序技术来研究基因表达模式，该项目将研究妊娠期间不同时间点妊娠子宫中免疫系统的调节。 使用的模式物种是灰色短尾负鼠，一种原产于南美洲的有袋哺乳动物。 作为一种有袋动物，它们是人类和小鼠的远亲，但在短暂的妊娠后仍然有活产。 从测序中鉴定出的免疫调节候选基因将通过将其表达定位于妊娠组织中的特定细胞类型来进一步研究。 通过将人类和小鼠等物种与负鼠等远亲进行比较，将揭示古老而保守的机制，因此可能很重要。 该项目将提供对免疫系统如何调节以应对怀孕的更好理解，并对生殖健康产生潜在的更广泛影响。 该项目还向中央新墨西哥州社区学院的教师和学生提供外展服务。每年夏天，CNM的一名教员和两名学生将在首席研究员的实验室里研究该项目的某些方面。 这个研究机会的学生将根据CNM教职员工的建议进行选择。 将优先考虑谁是在转移到四年制大学设置的过程中，让他们有机会与研究活跃的教师从事独立项目的学生。

The immune system is exquisitely capable of distinguishing self-tissues from foreign invaders, often with the goals of protecting the former and destroying the latter. This creates a problem for those animals that birth live young following a prolonged pregnancy. How the immune system avoids attacking the embryo that is genetically half foreign has been a central question in immunology for almost 60 years. Using state-of-the-art, high-throughput gene sequencing technology to investigate patterns of gene expression, this project will investigate regulation of the immune system in the pregnant uterus at different time-points during gestation. The model species to be used is the gray short-tailed opossum, a marsupial mammal native to South America. As a marsupial, they are a very distant relative to humans and mice, but still have live birth following a short gestation. Genes identified from sequencing that are candidates for immune regulation will be further investigated by localizing their expression to specific cell types in pregnant tissues. By comparing species such as humans and mice to distant relatives such as opossums, mechanisms that are ancient and conserved, and therefore likely important, will be uncovered. This project will provide a greater understanding of how the immune system is regulated to deal with pregnancy and has potential broader impact on reproductive health. This project also provides outreach to faculty and students at Central New Mexico (CNM) community college. A CNM faculty member and two students will spend each summer in the principal investigator's laboratory working on some aspects of the project. Students for this research opportunity will be chosen with the advice from CNM faculty members. Preference will be given to students who are in the process of transferring to the four-year university setting to give them the opportunity to engage in independent projects with research active faculty.