Molecular cloning and functional analysis of duck Toll-like receptor 5

Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) is responsible for the recognition of bacterial flagellin in vertebrates. In this study, we cloned the single-exon TLR5 gene of the Maya breed of Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna). The TLR5 open reading frame is 2580 bp in length and encodes an 859-amino acid protein. The putative amino acid sequence of duck TLR5 consisted of a signal peptide sequence, 11 leucine-rich repeat domains, a leucine-rich repeat C-terminal domain, a transmembrane domain, and an intracellular Toll-interleukin-1 receptor domain. The duck TLR5 gene was highly expressed in the lung, bone marrow, spleen, and liver; moderately expressed in kidney, small intestine, large intestine, and brain. A plasmid expressing duck TLR5 was constructed and transfected into HEK293T cells, and expression was confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence assay. HEK293T cells transfected with duck TLR5- and NF-κB-luciferase-containing plasmids significantly responded to flagellin from Salmonella typhimurium, indicating that it is a functional TLR5 homolog.