Time-Course Transcriptome Landscape of Bursa of Fabricius Development and Degeneration in Chickens

Abstract

The bursa of Fabricius (BF) is a target organ for various pathogenic microorganisms; however, the genes that regulate BF development and decline have not been fully characterized. Therefore, in this study, histological sections of the BF were obtained from black-boned chickens at 7 (N7), 42 (N42), 90 (N90) and 120 days (N120) of age, and the differential expression and expression trends of the BF at different stages were analyzed by transcriptome analysis. The results showed that the growth of the BF progressively matured with age, followed by gradual shrinkage and disappearance. Transcriptome differential analysis revealed 5914, 5513, 4575, 577, 530 and 66 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in six different comparison groups: N7 vs. N42, N7 vs. N90, N7 vs. N120, N42 vs. N90, N42 vs. N120 and N90 vs. N120, respectively. Moreover, we performed transcriptomic analysis of the time series of BF development and identified the corresponding stages of biological process enrichment. Finally, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the expression of the 16 DEGs during bursal growth and development. These results were consistent with the transcriptome results, indicating that they reflect the expression of the BF during growth and development and that these genes reflect the characteristics of the BF at different times of development and decline. These findings reflect the characteristics of the BF at different time intervals.