B lymphopoiesis is characterized by pre-B cell marker gene expression in fetal cattle and declines in adults

► Bovine B-lymphopoiesis is active in fetuses and declines in adults. ► Bovine genome encodes for three pre-B lymphocyte genes: VPREB1, VPREB2, and VPREB3. ► VPREB2 and VPREB3 genes are likely to have biological roles unrelated to pre-B cells in cattle. Fetal cattle B-cell development proceeds via a pre-B cell stage that is characterized by the expression of surrogate light chain and recombination activation genes. In this paper, we identify a new member of bovine pre-B lymphocyte genes, VPREB2. Using RT-qPCR, we assess the expression of VPREB2 and three other surrogate light chain genes as well as RAG1 and RAG2 in fetal and adult cattle tissues. The absence of VPREB1, IGLL1, RAG1 and RAG2 expression in adult tissues and the lack of B-lymphoid differentiation in adult bone marrow – OP9 stromal cell co-culture, suggest a decline of B lymphopoiesis in adult cattle. The marked differences in the expression profiles of VPREB2 and VPREB3 in comparison to those of VPREB1, IGLL1 and RAGs suggest that the biological roles of VPREB2 and VPREB3 are unrelated to the pre-B cells.