Polymorphisms of chicken Toll-like receptors 4, 15, and 21 in different breeds.

Toll-like receptors (TLR) mediate immune responses via the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns, thus playing important roles in host defense. Among the chicken (Ch) TLR family, ChTLR1, 2, 4, 15, and 21 were shown to recognize bacterial components. In our earlier study, we reported polymorphisms of TLR1, 2, and 5. In the present study, we cloned TLR4, 15, and 21 genes from different chicken breeds and analyzed their sequences. We identified 9 amino acid polymorphism sites in ChTLR4 with 8 extracellular domain sites and 1 site in the cytoplasmic domain, 15 amino acid polymorphism sites in ChTLR15 with 14 extracellular domain sites and 1 site in the cytoplasmic domain, and 7 amino acid polymorphism sites in ChTLR21 with 5 extracellular domain sites and 2 sites in the cytoplasmic domain. These results demonstrate that ChTLR genes are polymorphic among different avian breeds, suggesting a varied resistance across numerous chicken breeds. This information might help improve chicken health by breeding and vaccination.