Supplemental Material for: Functional divergence of regulatory and conventional bovine neutrophils following Mycobacterium bovis infection

Methods

In this study, we compared the responses of bovine Nconv and Nreg to infection with a virulent Mb strain circulating in France and the attenuated Mb BCG vaccine. </p><p dir="ltr">Results: Nreg and Nconv had different transcriptional profiles and were differentially activated by Mb infection. Both Nreg and Nconv efficiently killed Mb, but Nreg had higher levels of phagocytosis activity (2-fold difference) and ROS production (2.3-fold difference).

Nreg had higher levels of mitochondrial activity and an ultrastructural organization different from that of Nconv. </p><p dir="ltr">Conclusion: Our results provide the first insight into the functional characterization of bovine neutrophil subsets during Mb infection and highlight a new layer of complexity in their functional diversity that must be taken into account to improve our understanding of bTB pathophysiology, which is urgently required to improve the management of this costly disease. </p>