Abstract
In cattle, colostral maternal immunoglobulins and lymphocytes transfer across the neonate's intestinal epithelium to provide protection against pathogens. This study aimed to compare repertoires of B cell populations in blood and colostrum in cows for the first time, with an emphasis on ultralong complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3, ≥40 amino acids). Blood mononuclear cells (BMCs, n= 7) and colostral cells (n = 7) were isolated from Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Magnetic-activated cell sorting was used to capture IgM and IgG B cells from BMCs. Colostral cells were harvested by centrifugation. RNA was extracted and cDNA was produced; IgM and IgG transcripts were amplified using polymerase chain reactions. Amplicons were sequenced using the Nanopore Native barcoding kit 24 V14 and MinION with R10.4 flow cells. In colostrum, there was a significantly greater percentage of IgM B cells with ultralong CDR3s (8.09% ± 1.73 standard error of the mean) compared to blood (4.22% ± 0.70, p = 0.05). There was a significantly greater percentage of IgG B cells in colostrum with ultralong CDR3s (12.98% ± 1.98) compared to blood (6.61% ± 1.11, p = 0.05). A higher percentage of IgM and IgG B cells with ultralong CDR3s in colostrum may be indicative of a potential role in protecting the neonate.