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

免疫系统能够很好地区分自身组织和外来入侵者，通常的目的是保护前者并摧毁后者。这给那些在长时间怀孕后产下幼崽的动物带来了问题。近60年来，免疫系统如何避免攻击基因上一半是外来的胚胎一直是免疫学的一个中心问题。使用最先进的高通量基因测序技术来研究基因表达的模式，这个项目将研究怀孕子宫在怀孕期间不同时间点的免疫系统的调节。将要使用的模式物种是灰色短尾负鼠，这是一种原产于南美洲的有袋哺乳动物。作为一种有袋类动物，它们与人类和老鼠是非常遥远的亲戚，但在短暂的怀孕后仍然有活着的孩子。从测序中确定的候选免疫调节基因将通过定位它们在怀孕组织中的特定细胞类型的表达来进一步研究。通过将人类和老鼠等物种与负鼠等远亲进行比较，古老而保守的机制将被揭示，因此可能是重要的。该项目将使人们更好地了解如何调节免疫系统来应对怀孕，并可能对生殖健康产生更广泛的影响。该项目还向新墨西哥州中部(CNM)社区学院的教职员工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。这次研究机会的学生将根据CNM教职员工的建议进行选择。将优先考虑正在转学到四年制大学的学生，使他们有机会参与具有活跃研究能力的独立项目。

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.