Project description:Hatchability is one of the important reproductive traits of poulty, however, molecular biological study related to hatchability of poultry is very limited. The magnum is where the egg white components are produced. During embryo development, egg white secreted by the magnum is gradually transferred into the amniotic fluid, and albumen finally migrates to the embryo. Egg white proteins are composed of ovalbumin, conalbumin, lysozyme, ovomucoid, riboflavin binding protein (RfBP), and other less abundant proteins. Mutation of ovalbumin and RfBP genes increases the mortality of embryos; therefore, egg white might be closely related to poultry hatchability. Tsaiya duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is the major egg-laying duck in Taiwan. In this study, gene expression profiling by cDNA microarray chip technology was performed using mRNA prepared from the magnum epithelium of Tsaiya ducks, and a number of differentially expressed transcripts were found. Keywords = Tsaiya duck (Anas platyrhynchos), magnum, hachability, cDNA microarray, transcriptional profiling.
