Project description:The feather follicle is a “professional” regenerative organ that undergoes natural cycling and, regeneration after wound plucking. Similar to mammalian hair follicle, dermal papilla (DP) controls feather regeneration, shape, size, and axis. Here we report gene expression profiling for feather DP at different growth stages. For growth phase, we compared gene expression of DP, the ramogenic zone of feather branching epithelium (Erz) and the mesenchymal pulp (Pp). We also compared gene expression of DP at resting phase. To characterize the feather regeneration process, we further profiled gene expression at Day-2 and Day-4 post wound. Our results provide a resource for investigating feather growth and regeneration. Examination of gene expression in dermal papilla (DP) at growth phase and resting phase feather follicle, and during feather regeneration.

2014-01-22 | E-GEOD-42017 | biostudies-arrayexpress

ChIP-seq for embryonic chicken feather and scale samples

Project description:Feather evolution enabled feathered dinosaurs and early Mesozoic birds to venture into new ecological niches. Studying how feathers and scales are specified provides insight into how a new organ evolves. We use genome-wide analyses to identify feather-associated genes and test their feather-forming ability by expressing them in chicken and alligator scales. Intermediate morphotypes revealed five cardinal morphogenetic events: localized growth zone, follicle invagination, branching, feather keratin differentiation and dermal papilla formation. In contrast to molecules known to induce feathers on scales (retinoic acid, beta-catenin), we identify novel scale-feather converters (Sox2, Zic1, Grem1, Spry2, Sox18) which induce only one or several of the five regulatory modules. Some morphotypes resemble filamentous appendages found in feathered dinosaur fossils, while others demonstrate some characteristics of modern feathers. We propose that at least five morpho-regulatory modules were used to diversify ancient reptile scales. The regulatory combination and hierarchical integration led to extant feather forms.

2017-12-31 | GSE87248 | GEO

Investigating gene expression differences in two chicken lines with variable propensity to feather pecking

Project description:Feather pecking is a major welfare problem in egg production. It may be caused by genetic, physiological and environmental factors. The main aim of this study was to uncover variability in gene expression between individuals from high (HFP) and for low feather pecking (LFP) line using Chicken Gene Expression Microarrays (Agilent Technologies). Samples were assorted to two groups, each containing 9 biological replicates from high feather pecking (HFP) and low feather pecking (LFP) line.

2012-03-17 | E-GEOD-36559 | biostudies-arrayexpress

Affymetrix SNP array data for Dwarf and Rhode Island Red chicken samples

Project description:The genetic foundation of chicken tail feather color is not very well studied to date, though that of body feather color is extensively explored. In the present study, we used a synthetic chicken dwarf line (DW), which was originated from the hybrids between a black tail chicken breed, Rhode Island Red (RIR) and a white tail breed, Dwarf Layer (DL), to understand the genetic rules of the white/black tail color. The DW line still contain the individuals with black or white tails, even if the body feather are predominantly red, after more than ten generation of self-crossing and being selected for the body feather color. We firstly performed four crosses using the DW line chickens including black tail male to female, reciprocal crosses between the black and white, and white male to female to elucidate the inheritance pattern of the white/black tail. We found that (i) the white/black tail feather colors are independent of body feather color and (ii) the phenotype are autosomal simple trait and (iii) the white are dominant to the black in the DW lines. Furtherly, we performed a genome-wide association (GWA) analysis to determine the candidate genomic regions underlying the tail feather color by using black tail chickens from the RIR and DW chickens and white individuals from DW lines.

2019-05-02 | GSE130568 | GEO

Gene expression in feather dermal papilla (DP)

2014-01-22 | GSE42017 | GEO