Inspection of C-type lectin superfamily expression profile in chicken and mouse dendritic cells

C-type lectin superfamily is a cell surface molecule family well-recognized for its role in inducing and tailoring dendritic cell (DC) immune response. Despite its importance in DC targeting and activation, knowledge about C-type lectin family expression in chicken DC is still limited, and thus hinders its utilization for poultry DC vaccine development. In this study, expressions of C-type lectin orthologous gene among available chicken and mouse DC subsets were determined for expression levels and differential expression patterns. Leukocyte microarray datasets and bone marrow-derived DC mRAN-sequencing datasets were pre-processed prior to observation and comparison. Data virtualization revealed variation in C-type lectin gene expressions among the DC subsets, while the differential and relative expression results manifested PLA2R1 and CLEC16A as candidate genes for their future exploration at molecular and functional levels (FDR<0.001 when compared to lymphocytes, and relative expression level >= 0). Of note, a step-by-step procedure to extract novel C-type lectin gene candidates in chicken DC by cross-species comparative expression profiling analysis was illustrated in this study. Based on the same process, a future study is planned to apply the same procedures to investigate other gene families' potential for DC targeting and activation in chicken.