Identification of a Toll-Like Receptor 1 in Guinea Fowl ( Agelastes niger )

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns, thus playing important roles in host defense. This study determined the first sequence of a TLR1 type 1 in the guinea fowl (GFTLR1). The open reading frame of GFTLR1 type 1 contains 2,115 nucleotides and encodes 705 amino acids. Amino acid analysis indicated that GFTLR1 type 1 shares 92.3 % homology with the green jungle fowl, 92.1 % with the chicken, 90.4 % with the turkey, and 84.4 % with Cooper’s hawk. Genetic patterns were identified within the TLR1 type 1 of the chicken and the guinea fowl. GFTLR1 type 1 was found to have 92 polymorphic amino acid sites, of which 16 were in the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain, 3 in a C-terminal LRR domain, and 6 in a Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain. The data showed that avian TLR1 type 1 genes are under purifying selection and highly conserved, because d N /d S was less than 1.