Project description:Campylobacter jejuni is the major cause of acute gastroenteritis in the developed world. It is usually acquired through contaminated poultry as C. jejuni causes a silent asymptomatic infection of the chicken. Pathogens face different sources of stress during its transit through the gut. In this study, we describe the ability of C. jejuni to survive nitrosative stress at very low oxygen levels that reflect those in hypoxic gut environments. Specifically, we here explore an innovative model of signal recognition during colonization. We use a diffusion capsule to feed small, diffusible molecules from chicken caecal matter into a microaerobic C. jejuni culture to study the transcriptomic changes mounted as response to chemical signals present in the chicken gut. We find that in early stages of exposure to the caecal contents (10 min) the dual component colonization regulator, dccR, plays an important yet not fully understood role. Although the caecal material contains cyanide derived from plant sources, we find no role for a truncated globin (encoded by ctb), which has previously been implicated in resistance to this haem ligand.
Project description:By using a 44k chicken Agilent microarray, we systematically analyzed the chicken hypothalamus transcriptome response to thermal stress. Twelve hypothalamus samples were chosen from three groups (four samples per group) to be used in chicken genome microarray to examine differential gene expression.We compared the expression profiles between each pairs of the three groups using the microarray data. Totally, 2474 genes were found to be differentially expressed in the three comparisons with p<0.05 and fold change (FC) higher than 1.5 and the genes were mainly involved in self-regulation and compensation required to maintain homeostasis, including heat shock protein family, enzyme and the hormone, neurotransmitter, cell-cell signaling, metabolism and cytokines. The transcripts of heat shock protein including Hsp 40 and Hsp 90 were significantly changed respond to thermal stress and genes involved in regulation of cell morphogenesis were significantly upregulated in heat stressed group with comparison to control and temperature recovery group. Additionally, the down-regulated genes in both heat stress and temperature recovery groups compared to control group were enriched in muscle organ development, striated muscle tissue development, cardiac muscle tissue development and muscle tissue development, which indicates that muscle development was inhibited during and in short-term after heat treatment. Most of genes dysregulated in heat stress group were found to be recovered in temperature recovery group, which confirmed their roles they could play in coping with heat stress. The present study provides a broader understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the stress response in chicken and discovery of novel genes that are regulated in a thermal stress specific manner.
Project description:By using a 44k chicken Agilent microarray, we systematically analyzed the chicken hypothalamus transcriptome response to thermal stress. Twelve hypothalamus samples were chosen from three groups (four samples per group) to be used in chicken genome microarray to examine differential gene expression.We compared the expression profiles between each pairs of the three groups using the microarray data. Totally, 2474 genes were found to be differentially expressed in the three comparisons with pM-oM-<M-^\0.05 and fold change (FC) higher than 1.5 and the genes were mainly involved in self-regulation and compensation required to maintain homeostasis, including heat shock protein family, enzyme and the hormone, neurotransmitter, cell-cell signaling, metabolism and cytokines. The transcripts of heat shock protein including Hsp 40 and Hsp 90 were significantly changed respond to thermal stress and genes involved in regulation of cell morphogenesis were significantly upregulated in heat stressed group with comparison to control and temperature recovery group. Additionally, the down-regulated genes in both heat stress and temperature recovery groups compared to control group were enriched in muscle organ development, striated muscle tissue development, cardiac muscle tissue development and muscle tissue development, which indicates that muscle development was inhibited during and in short-term after heat treatment. Most of genes dysregulated in heat stress group were found to be recovered in temperature recovery group, which confirmed their roles they could play in coping with heat stress. The present study provides a broader understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the stress response in chicken and discovery of novel genes that are regulated in a thermal stress specific manner. Hypothalamus samples were collected from non-heat treated group (reared at 25C, used as control), 24h 34C treated group (heat stress treated group) and temperature recovery group (25C for 24h followed heat stress).
Project description:Heat stress is a very complex physiological process. At present, there are some reports about physiological function and pathological changed on chicken heat stress. We use DNA microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying heat stress and identified distinct classes of differentially expressed (DE) genes during this process. Chicken were randomly divided into two groups to study the effects of heat stress on gene expression of brain, liver and leg muscle. Twenty-four birds (12 male and 12 female) were allocated to heat stress or post-heat stress groupM-oM-<M-^H40M-BM-11M-BM-0C,3hM-oM-<M-^I and control or pre-heat stress groupM-oM-<M-^H28M-BM-11M-BM-0CM-oM-<M-^I.
Project description:Heat stress is a very complex physiological process. At present, there are some reports about physiological function and pathological changed on chicken heat stress. We use DNA microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying heat stress and identified distinct classes of differentially expressed (DE) genes during this process.