Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Genetic Predisposition to Chronic Wasting Disease in the Reindeer Rangifer tarandus in the Northern European Part of Russia

  • GENETICS
  • Published:
Biology Bulletin Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nucleotide sequences of the prion protein gene PRNP have been obtained in order to assess potential genetic predisposition to the deadly prion chronic wasting disease (CWD) in three regional groups of wild reindeer and two regional groups of domesticated reindeer Rangifer tarandus in the northern European part of Russia. We report identification of seven single nucleotide polymorphisms corresponding to the substitutions in six codons of the prion protein PrP, namely 2(V/M), 129(G/S), 138(S/N), 169(V/M), 176(N/D), and 225(S/Y). Six alleles of the PrP protein have been described. The genotypes with asparagine (N) in codon 138 (138NN and 138SN), which are associated with higher resistance to CWD, were detected in 8.7, 14.3, and 18.2% of animals in the wild reindeer groups from Novaya Zemlya, Kola Peninsula, and the forest regions of Arkhangelsk oblast and the Komi Republic. It has been found that the frequency of these genotypes in domesticated reindeers from the Komi Republic and Kolguev Island was higher, 37.5 and 42.1%, respectively. It has been noted that due to the predominance of PrP genotypes with serine in codon 138 (138SS), which are associated with increased susceptibility to CWD, and the detection of this disease in reindeer, moose, and red deer in Scandinavia, there exists a real danger that CWD will spread among the reindeer inhabiting the European part of Russia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Baeten, L.A., Powers, B.E., Jewell, J.E., Spraker, T.R., and Miller, M.W., A natural case of chronic wasting disease in a free-ranging moose (Alces alces shirasi), J. Wild. Dis., 2007, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 309–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Basu, U., Almeida, L.M., Dudas, S., Graham, C.E., Czub, S., Moore, S.S., and Guan, L.L., Gene expression alterations in rocky mountain elk infected with chronic wasting disease, Prion, 2012, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 282–301.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Benestad, S.L., Mitchell, G., Simmons, M., Ytrehus, B., and Vikoren, T., First case of chronic wasting disease in Europe in a Norwegian free-ranging reindeer, Vet. Res., 2016, vol. 47, no. 88, pp. 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Efimov, V.A., Reindeer of the European North of Russia: population status and conservation problems, Vestn. Okhotoved., 2010, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 178–182.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ermolaev, V.T., Makarova, O.A., Novikov, B.V., and Tikhonov, A.A., Reindeer of the Kola Peninsula in the end of 20th–beginning of 21st century, in Severnyi olen’ v Rossii 1982–2002 gg (Reindeer in Russia in 1982–2002), Moscow: Brifstil’, 2003, pp. 81–91.

  6. Hall, T.A., BioEdit: a user friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT, Nucleic Acids Symp. Ser., 1999, no. 41, pp. 95–98.

  7. Happ, G.M., Huson, H.J., Beckmen, K.B., and Kennedy, L.J., Prion protein genes in caribou from Alaska, J. Wild. Dis., 2007, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 224–228.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hoover, C.E., Davenport, K.A., Henderson, D.M., Denkers, N.D., Mathiason, C.K., Soto, C., Zabel, M.D., and Hoover, E.A., Pathways of prion spread during early chronic wasting disease in deer, J. Virol., 2017, vol. 91, no. 10, p. 91. e00077-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00077-17

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jewell, J.E., Conner, M.M., Wolfe, L.L., Miller, M.W., and Williams, E.S., Low frequency of PrP genotype 225SF among free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) with chronic wasting disease, J. Gen. Virol., 2005, vol. 86, pp. 2127–2134.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Krasnaya kniga Rossiiskoi Federatsii (zhivotnye) (The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation (Animals)), Moscow: AST, 2001.

  11. Mamontov, V.N. and Khokhlov, R.V., Status of the wild reindeer population (Rangifer tarandus L.) in the Vodlozerskii National Park, in Nauchnye issledovaniya v zapovednikakh i natsional’nykh parkakh Rossii: Vseros. Nauchno-Prakt. Konf. (Petrozavodsk, 29 avgusta–4 sentyabrya 2016 g.), Tezisy dokladov (Research in Reserves and National Parks of Russia: All-Russia Sci.-Pract. Conf. (Petrozavodsk, August 29–September 4, 2016), Abstracts of Papers), Petrozavodsk, 2016, pp. 149–150.

  12. Miller, M.W., Williams, E.S., Hobbs, N.T., and Wolfe, L.L., Environmental sources of prion transmission in mule deer, Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2004, vol. 10, pp. 1003–1006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Miller, M.W. and Wild, M.A., Epidemiology of chronic wasting disease in captive white-tailed and mule deer, J. Wild. Dis., 2004, vol. 40, pp. 320–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mitchell, G.B., Sigurdson, C.J., O’Rourke, K.I., Algire, J., Harrington, N.P., Walther, I., Spraker, T.R., and Balachandran, A., Experimental oral transmission of chronic wasting disease to reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus), PLoS One, 2012, vol. 7, no. 6. e39055. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039055

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Nei, M., Genetic distance between populations, Am. Nat., 1972, vol. 106, pp. 283–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Panchenko, D.V., Danilov, P.I., and Tirronen, K.F., Status and use of populations of members of the family Cervidae in the Republic of Karelia, Tr. Kar. Nauchn. Tsentra Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2018, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 105–114.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Peakall, R. and Smouse, P.E., GENALEX 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research, Mol. Ecol. Notes, 2006, vol. 6, pp. 288–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Plummer, I.H., Johnson, C.J., Chesney, A.R., Pedersen, J.A., and Samuel, M.D., Mineral licks as environmental reservoirs of chronic wasting disease prions, PLoS One, 2018, vol. 13, no. 5. 0196745. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196745

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Prusiner, S.B., Prions, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 1998, vol. 95, pp. 13363–13383.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Pulford, B., Spraker, T.R., Wyckoff, A.C., Meyerett, C., Bender, H., Ferguson, A., Wyatt, B., Lockwood, K., Powers, J., Telling, G.C., Wild, M.A., and Zabel, M.D., Detection of PrP CWD in feces from naturally exposed Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) using protein misfolding cyclic amplification, J. Wild. Dis., 2012, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 425–434.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Robinson, S.J., Samuel, M.D., Katherine, I., O’Rourke, K.I., and Johnson, C.J., The role of genetics in chronic wasting disease of North American cervids, Prion, 2012, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. O’Rourke, K.I., Besser, T.E., Miller, M.W., Cline, T.F., Spraker, T.R., Jenny, A.L., Wild, M.A., Zebarth, G.L., and Williams, E.S., PrP genotypes of captive and free-ranging rocky mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) with chronic wasting disease, J. Gen. Virol., 1999, vol. 80, pp. 2765–2769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Sigurdson, C.J., A prion disease of cervids: chronic wasting disease, Vet. Res., 2008, vol. 39, no. 41, pp. 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Vikøren, T., Vage, J., Madslien, K.I., Røed, K.H., Rolandsen, C.M., Tran, L., Hopp, P., Veiberg, V., Heum, M., Moldal, T., das Neves, C.G., Handeland, K., Ytrehus, B., Kolbjørnsen, Ø., Wisløff, H., Terland, R., Saure, B., Dessen, K.M., Svendsen, S.G., Nordvik, B.S., and Benestad, S.L., First detection of chronic wasting disease in a wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Europe, J. Wild. Dis., 2019, vol. 55, no. 4 (in press).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Wik, L., Mikko, S., Klingeborn, M., Stéen, M., Simonsson, M., and Linné, T., Polymorphisms and variants in the prion protein sequence of European moose (Alces alces), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama) in Scandinavia, Prion, 2012, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 256–260.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Williams, E.S., Chronic wasting disease, Vet. Pathol., 2005, vol. 42, pp. 530–549.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to S.L. Kal’nov for his suggestion to perform this study; to V.V. Elsakov, A.V. Davydov, K.F. Tirronen, and other colleagues for their help with the material collection; and to I.G. Meshchersky and P.A. Sorokin for their assistance in the laboratory work.

This work was carried out in the Molecular Diagnostic Center, of the Center for Collective Use “Instrumental Methods in Ecology,” of Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the “Biodiversity of Natural Systems: Biological Resources of Russia. Status Assessment and Fundamental Bases of Monitoring” Fundamental Research Program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (topic 52) and in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 14-04-01135).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    M. V. Kholodova & A. I. Baranova

  2. Russian Arctic National Park, 163000, Arkhangelsk, Russia

    I. A. Mizin

  3. Biology Institute, Karelian Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 185910, Petrozavodsk, Russia

    D. V. Panchenko

  4. Naryan-Mar Branch, Laverov Federal Research Center for Integrated Study of the Arctic, Russian Academy of Sciences, 166000, Naryan-Mar, Russia

    T. M. Romanenko

  5. Institute of Biology, Komi Science Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 167982, Syktyvkar, Russia

    A. N. Korolev

Authors
  1. M. V. Kholodova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. I. Baranova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. I. A. Mizin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. V. Panchenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. T. M. Romanenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. A. N. Korolev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. V. Kholodova.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement on the welfare of animals. This article does not contain any studies involving animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Translated by E. Martynova

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kholodova, M.V., Baranova, A.I., Mizin, I.A. et al. A Genetic Predisposition to Chronic Wasting Disease in the Reindeer Rangifer tarandus in the Northern European Part of Russia. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 46, 555–561 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359019060074

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359019060074

Search

Navigation