Bovine immunogenetics.

This chapter covers bovine immunogenetics. Significant advances that have been made in describing the genetics of the bovine immune system receptors and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules that are involved in presenting peptides to T cells to engage their so-called T cell receptor (TCR) are reviewed. The genes that code for the T and B cell antigen-specific receptors (TCR and B cell receptor (BCR)) and the immunoglobulins (antibodies) that are secreted by B cells and which mirror the BCR of the secreting cell are also described in detail. Moreover, germline encoded multigene receptor families that are expressed by both innate and adaptive immune system cells and which interact with pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP), host cell-derived damage associated molecule patterns (DAMP), as well as classical and non-classical MHC molecules, are discussed.