Abstract
Enhancing genetic resistance of chickens to Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) provides a promising way to improve poultry health, and to alleviate poverty and food insecurity in developing countries. In this study, two inbred chicken lines with different responses to NDV, Fayoumi and Leghorn, were challenged with LaSota NDV strain at 21 days of age. Through transcriptome analysis, gene expression in spleen at 2 and 6 days post-inoculation was compared between NDV-infected and control groups, as well as between chicken lines. At a false discovery rate <0.05, Fayoumi chickens, which are relatively more resistant to NDV, showed fewer differentially expressed genes (DEGs) than Leghorn chickens. Several interferon-stimulated genes were identified as important DEGs regulating immune response to NDV in chicken. Pathways predicted by IPA analysis, such as "EIF-signaling", "actin cytoskeleton organization nitric oxide production" and "coagulation system" may contribute to resistance to NDV in Fayoumi chickens. The identified DEGs and predicted pathways may contribute to differential responses to NDV between the two chicken lines and provide potential targets for breeding chickens that are more resistant to NDV.
Highlights
The ability of the host to expel pathogens and to limit their proliferation and shedding are components of resistance[7]
The two chicken lines showed no significant difference in the viral copy number at 2 dpi, but Fayoumis showed larger decrease after 4 days, making it significantly lower than that in Leghorns
Log[2] fold change of 40 selected genes in different comparisons showed very high consistency between expression data obtained by Fluidigm Biomark qPCR and RNA-seq, validating the differential expression identified by RNA-seq (Fig. 1)
Summary
The ability of the host to expel pathogens and to limit their proliferation and shedding are components of resistance[7]. To gain a comprehensive understanding of regulation of immune response and resistance to NDV in chickens, we must investigate gene expression response to NDV in other immune organs. The spleen is a major secondary immune organ where B and T cells mature in adult birds. It filters pathogens in the bloodstream, synthesizes antibody, and multiplies leukocytes[14]. The objectives of this study were to identify genes and pathways potentially regulating splenic response to NDV and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of genetic resistance to NDV through comparison of splenic gene expression between challenged and control groups, as well as between Fayoumi and Leghorn chickens
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