Abstract
Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) leads to economic losses in poultry production and is also a threat to human health. The goal of this study was to characterize the chicken spleen transcriptome and to identify candidate genes for response and resistance to APEC infection using Solexa sequencing. We obtained 14422935, 14104324, and 14954692 Solexa read pairs for non-challenged (NC), challenged-mild pathology (MD), and challenged-severe pathology (SV), respectively. A total of 148197 contigs and 98461 unigenes were assembled, of which 134949 contigs and 91890 unigenes match the chicken genome. In total, 12272 annotated unigenes take part in biological processes (11664), cellular components (11927), and molecular functions (11963). Summing three specific contrasts, 13650 significantly differentially expressed unigenes were found in NC Vs. MD (6844), NC Vs. SV (7764), and MD Vs. SV (2320). Some unigenes (e.g. CD148, CD45 and LCK) were involved in crucial pathways, such as the T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway and microbial metabolism in diverse environments. This study facilitates understanding of the genetic architecture of the chicken spleen transcriptome, and has identified candidate genes for host response to APEC infection.
Highlights
Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic bacterium, causes intestinal and extraintestinal infections, septicemia, and mortality in broiler chickens [1]
We obtained a total of 98,461 unigenes by further assembly analysis, which was more than all predicted genes (20,000–23,000) in chicken genome [10]
1,103 of 19,218 NCBI unigenes are covered by 100% in length, and 4,326, 2,151 and 2,373 unigenes show the coverage of 90–99%, 80–89%, and 70–79%, respectively
Summary
Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic bacterium, causes intestinal and extraintestinal infections, septicemia, and mortality in broiler chickens [1]. The most common infectious bacterial disease in poultry, APEC-induced colibacillosis reduces growth and egg production, thereby causing significant economic losses, as well as potentially contaminating poultry products, which generatess a risk for human health [1,2]. The APEC-O1, O2, O78 serotypes of the O serogroup represent at least half of the total number of isolates [3,4], and are responsible for over 80% of human septicemia cases world wide [2]. Vaccines are not fully effective against heterologous APEC strains and there is consumer pressure to reduce the use of antibiotics in food animal production.
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