Project description:Climate change and disease have large negative impacts on poultry production, but little is known about the interactions of responses to these stressors in chickens. Fayoumi (heat and disease resistant) and broiler (heat and disease susceptible) chicken lines were stimulated at 22 days of age, using a 2x2x2 factorial design including: breed (Fayoumi or broiler), inflammatory stimulus [lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or saline], and temperature (35°C or 25°C). Transcriptional changes in spleens were analyzed using RNA-sequencing on the Illumina HiSeq 2500. Thirty-two individual cDNA libraries were sequenced (four per treatment) and an average of 22 million reads were generated per library. Stimulation with LPS induced more differentially expressed genes (DEG, log2 fold change ≥ 2 and FDR ≤ 0.05) in the broiler (N=283) than the Fayoumi (N=85), whereas heat treatment resulted in fewer DEG in broiler (N=22) compared to Fayoumi (N=107). The double stimulus of LPS+heat induced the largest numbers of changes in gene expression, for which broiler had 567 DEG and Fayoumi had 1471 DEG of which 399 were shared between breeds. Further analysis of DEG revealed pathways impacted by these stressors such as Remodelling of Epithelial Adherens Junctions due to heat stress, Granulocyte Adhesion and Diapedesis due to LPS, and Hepatic Fibrosis/Hepatic Stellate Cell Activation due to LPS+heat. The genes and pathways identified provide deeper understanding of the response to the applied stressors and may serve as biomarkers for genetic selection for heat and disease tolerant chickens.
Project description:Background In broilers, heat stress can result in reduced feed consumption, digestive inefficiency, impaired metabolism, and even death. The broiler sector of the U.S. poultry industry incurs approximately $52 million in heat stress-related losses annually. The objective of this study is to characterize the effects of chronic, cyclic heat stress on the transcriptome of a metabolically active organ, the liver. Characterizing the liver transcriptome of heat-stressed broilers will help clarify the effects of heat stress on metabolism. This information will provide a platform for future investigations that further elucidate physiologic responses to heat stress and seek methods to ameliorate the negative impacts of heat. Results Transcriptome sequencing of the livers of 8 broiler males using Illumina HiSeq 2000 technology, resulted in a total of 138 million, 100 base pair single end reads, yielding 13.8 gigabases of sequence. Forty genes were differentially expressed at a significance level of P-value < 0.05 and a fold change ≥ 2 in response to chronic, cyclic heat stress (mid-point of the last day of a 7-day cyclic heat stress of 7 hours per day), with 27 down-regulated and 13 up-regulated. Two gene networks were created from the function-based Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) of the differentially expressed genes; “Cell Signaling, Molecular Transport, Small Molecule Biochemistry” and “Endocrine System Development and Function, Small Molecule Biochemistry Cell Signaling”. Members of the MAPK signaling pathway and differentially expressed genes that are associated with MAPK-related functions were prominent in the networks. Cellular proliferation and differentiation, inflammationand stress-related signaling, and apoptosis-associated genes were down-regulated in response to heat stress. Genes responsible for inhibiting feed intake and sphingolipidrelated signaling were up-regulated. Genes involved with the regulation of inflammation, stress, thyroid hormone level, and body temperature were both up- and down-regulated. Conclusions Chronic, cyclic heat stress of broilers results in metabolic changes that can be characterized through RNA-seq analysis of the liver transcriptome. The primary affected pathways included cell signaling, molecular transport, endocrine system development and signaling, and small molecule biochemistry. Examination of 2 heat treatments. Four heat stressed liver samples and 4 control liver samples analyzed.
Project description:Acute heat stress induces differential gene expressions in the small yellow follicles of a broiler-type strain of Taiwan country chickens
Project description:Multi-tissue transcriptomic analysis to reveal the effect of L-methionine supplementation in broiler chickens under acute heat stress