Project description:Purpose: With the advent of Next-generation sequencing (NGS), several novel genes/proteins and cellular pathways in wide variety of tissues has been discovered. The aim of this study are to perform uterine transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) to determine differently expressed genes in laying and non-laying hens and to further validate the expression of candidate genes using real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT–PCR) in laying, non-laying and molting hens. Methods: Uterine mRNA profiles of 35-60 weeks-old laying and non-laying hens, three each, were generated with NextSeq 500 sequencer in single-end mode with a read length of 1x76 bp. Raw sequencing reads were cleaned and trimmmed with Prinseq tool and good reads were aligned against the chicken reference gemone (Galgal 5.0) in Array Studio. Differential gene expression analysis was performed by the DESeq2 algorithm as implemented in Array Studio. The genes with at least two-fold change (FC) and Benjamini and Hochberg q-value < 0.05 were called differentially expressed. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 32 million reads from layers and 28 million reads from non-layers to the chicken genome. A total of 19,152 gene transcripts were annotated from Ensembl alignment which represents 50.24% of the chicken genome assembly. Differential gene expression analysis showed 616 were differentially expressed between layer and non-layer hens. 229 DEGs were significantly up-regulated and 286 were significantly down-regulated in the laying hens when compared to the non-laying hens. Twelve candiate genes, linked to calcium remodeling, were identified by gene function analysis and validated using qPCR. MEPE, CALCB, OTOP2, STC2 and ATP2C2 were confirmed to be highly expressed in laying hens as compared to molting and non-laying hens. RNA-seq and qPCR data for relative gene expression were highly correlated (R2 =0.99). Conclusions: Our study reports the expression of four novel genes that are speculated to transport calcium ions across the uterine epithellium for eggshell mineralization. These genes can be used as quantitative basis of selecting hens with an improved eggshell quality.
Project description:Gut microbiome research is rapidly moving towards the functional characterization of the microbiota by means of shotgun meta-omics. Here, we selected a cohort of healthy subjects from an indigenous and monitored Sardinian population to analyze their gut microbiota using both shotgun metagenomics and shotgun metaproteomics. We found a considerable divergence between genetic potential and functional activity of the human healthy gut microbiota, in spite of a quite comparable taxonomic structure revealed by the two approaches. Investigation of inter-individual variability of taxonomic features revealed Bacteroides and Akkermansia as remarkably conserved and variable in abundance within the population, respectively. Firmicutes-driven butyrogenesis (mainly due to Faecalibacterium spp.) was shown to be the functional activity with the higher expression rate and the lower inter-individual variability in the study cohort, highlighting the key importance of the biosynthesis of this microbial by-product for the gut homeostasis. The taxon-specific contribution to functional activities and metabolic tasks was also examined, giving insights into the peculiar role of several gut microbiota members in carbohydrate metabolism (including polysaccharide degradation, glycan transport, glycolysis and short-chain fatty acid production). In conclusion, our results provide useful indications regarding the main functions actively exerted by the gut microbiota members of a healthy human cohort, and support metaproteomics as a valuable approach to investigate the functional role of the gut microbiota in health and disease.
Project description:Purpose: With the advent of Next-generation sequencing (NGS), several novel genes/proteins and cellular pathways in wide varitey of tissues has discovered. The aim of this study are to perform transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) of magnum to determine differently expressed genes in laying and non-laying hens and to further validate the expression of candidate genes using real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT–PCR) in laying, non-laying and molting hens. Methods: Magnum mRNA profiles of 35-60 weeks-old laying and non-laying hens, three each, were generated with NextSeq 500 sequencer in single-end mode with a read length of 1x76 bp. Raw sequencing reads were cleaned and trimmmed with Prinseq tool and good reads were aligned against the chicken reference gemone (Galgal 5.0) in Array Studio. Differential gene expression analysis was performed by the DESeq2 algorithm as implemented in Array Studio. The genes with at least three-fold change (FC) and Benjamini and Hochberg q-value < 0.05 were called differentially expressed. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 30.5 million reads from layers and 33.4 million reads from non-layers to the chicken genome. A total of 19,152 gene transcripts were annotated from Ensembl alignment which represents 50.24% of the chicken genome assembly. Differential gene expression analysis showed 540 were differentially expressed between layer and non-layer hens. 152 DEGs were significantly up-regulated and 388 were significantly down-regulated in the laying hens when compared to the non-laying hens. Conclusions: Our study reports the expression of several pre-discovered and many novel genes that may be involved in the transport of precurosor molecules for biosynthesis and secretion of the egg-white proteins in the magnum. These genes can be used as quantitative basis of selecting hens with an improved egg quality.
Project description:This study investigated changes in gut transcriptome in response to the removal and reduction P (0 and 1 g P/kg feed) during the transition to egg production (at 19 and 24 weeks, before and after the onset of laying) in Lohmann Brown (LB) and Lohmann Selected Leghorn (LSL) chickens. A total of 80 LB and LSL hens were sampled in a 2x2x2 factorial design, encompassing two strains, age groups, and dietary.
Project description:In this study, RNA-Seq technology was adopted to investigate the differences in expression profiles of the hepatic lipid metabolism-related genes and the associated pathways between juvenile and laying hens. RNA-Seq analysis was carried out to estimate total RNA harvested from the liver of juvenile hens (n = 3) and laying hens (n = 3). Compared with juvenile hens, 2574 differentially expressed (DE) genes (1487 down and 1087 up) with P ⤠0.05 were obtained, and 955 of these genes were significantly DE (SDE) at a false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.05 and fold-change ⥠2 in laying hens. There were 198 SDE novel genes (107 down-regulated and 91 up-regulated) (FDR ⤠0.05) that were obtained from the transcriptome, and most of them were highly expressed. Moreover, 332 SDE isoforms were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway analysis showed that SDE genes were significantly associated with steroid biosynthesis, PPAR signaling pathway, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, glycerophospholipid metabolism, three amino acid pathways, and pyruvate metabolism (P ⤠0.05). The top significantly enriched GO terms included lipid biosynthesis, cholesterol and sterol metabolic, and oxidation reduction suggesting the principal lipogenesis in the liver of laying hens. This study suggests that the major changes at the level of transcriptome in laying hen liver are closely related to fat metabolism. Some highly differentially expressed uncharacterized novel genes and alternative splicing isoforms detected might also take part in lipid metabolism, though it needs investigation. Therefore, this study provides valuable information of mRNA of chicken liver, and deeper functional investigations on the mRNAs could help explore or provide new insights into molecular networks of lipid metabolism in chicken liver. The liver expression profile of juvenile hens and laying hens were generated by RNA-seq.