Project description:Ethiopia indigenous chicken breeds are typically divided into low and high altitude chicken breeds. Firstly, representative city of low altitude such as Awash is an altitude of around 950 meters above sea level and have a climate which is humidity and high temperature with 37℃ between May and June. Secondly, representative city of high altitude such as Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia in eastern Africa and this city is an altitude of over 2,400 meters above sea level and has a climate which is generally comparable with the average annual temperature of around 16℃. These chicken breeds are adapted to the environmental (climate, temperature and altitude) on the city. Moreover, in Awash, chicken breed is more adapted to heat resistance. So we generated RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data of Ethiopia indigenous chicken breeds such as low altitude chicken breed (adapted heat) and high altitude chicken breed (Non-adapted heat) to compare the gene expression profiling induced by heat stress (HS). Therefore, we identified 13 hub differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using cuffdiff within cufflinks, which validated by real-time quantitative-PCR (qRT-PCR) in Kenya chicken breed for biological and technical validation. These hub DEGs were subjected to pathway enrichment, protein/protein interaction, and the partial correlation coefficient with information theory (PCIT) to determine their involvement in heat stress and immune response. Our findings suggest that not only hub DEGs but also many others DEGs may play a role in heat stress and immune response.
