Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Bactrian camel exemplifies mammalian adaptation to deserts, but the spatial organization of its innate immune system remains uncharacterized. This study integrated transcriptomes from 110 samples across 11 tissues to resolve tissue-specific gene expression and innate immune modularity. Through differential expression analysis, Tau specificity index (τ > 0.8), and machine learning validation (Random Forest F1-score = 0.86 ± 0.11), we identified 4,242 high-confidence tissue-specific genes (e.g., LIPE/PLIN1 in adipose). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of 1,522 innate immune genes revealed 11 co-expression modules, with six exhibiting significant tissue associations (FDR < 0.01): liver-specific (r = 0.96), spleen-adipose-enriched (r = 0.88), muscle-associated (r = 0.82), and blood-specific (r = 0.80) modules. These networks demonstrated multifunctional coordination of immune pathways—including Pattern Recognition, Cytokine Sig-naling, and Phagocytosis—rather than isolated functions. Our results establish that camel innate immunity is organized into spatially modular networks tailored to tissue microenvironments, providing the first systems-level framework for understanding immune resil-ience in desert-adapted mammals and may inform strategies for enhancing livestock re-silience in arid regions.
Source: Animals
DOI: 10.3390/ani15213173
Authors: Lili Guo, Bin Liu, Chencheng Chang, Fengying Ma, Le Zhou, Wenguang Zhang
Institution: Inner Mongolia Agricultural University
Language: English
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Award: G8428763752
OpenAlex ID: W4415812890