Transcriptome Analysis Revealed Ameliorative Effects of Bacillus Based Probiotic on Immunity, Gut Barrier System, and Metabolism of Chicken under an Experimentally Induced Eimeria tenella Infection

Fareed Uddin Memon,Weiyu Zhang,Yunqiao Yang,Ahmed M Soliman,Hongbin Si,Feifei Lv,Imdad Hussain Leghari

doi:10.3390/genes12040536

Abstract

In this study, we performed transcriptome analysis in the cecum tissues of negative control untreated non-challenged (NC), positive control untreated challenged (PC), and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) fed challenged chickens (BS + ET) in order to examine the underlying potential therapeutic mechanisms of Bacillus based probiotic feeding under an experimental Eimeria tenella (E. tenella) infection. Our results for clinical parameters showed that birds in probiotic diet decreased the bloody diarrhea scores, oocyst shedding, and lesion scores compared to positive control birds. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed that in total, 2509 up-regulated and 2465 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in the PC group versus NC group comparison. In the comparison of BS + ET group versus PC group, a total of 784 up-regulated and 493 down-regulated DEGs were found. Among them, several DEGs encoding proteins involved in immunity, gut barrier integrity, homeostasis, and metabolism were up-regulated by the treatment of probiotic. Functional analysis of DEGs also revealed that some gene ontology (GO) terms related with immunity, metabolism and cellular development were significantly affected by the exposure of probiotic. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that the DEGs in the cecum of B. subtilis-fed challenged group were mainly participated in the pathways related with immunity and gut barrier integrity, included mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling pathway, extracellular matrix (ECM)–receptor interaction, tight junction, and so on. Taken together, these results suggest that Bacillus based probiotic modulate the immunity, maintain gut homeostasis as well as barrier system and improve chicken metabolism during E. tenella infection.

Highlights

Coccidiosis, one of the most common parasitic disease in chicken caused by seven different intestinal habitual species of the genus Eimeria, including E. tenella, E. maxima, E. necatrix, E. mitis, E. brunetti, E. praecox, and E. acervulina [1]
Oocyst shedding in feces, and cecal lesions were detected in negative control group
The significant low bloody diarrhea scores (4–7 PI), oocyst shedding in feces (4–7 PI) and cecal lesions were observed in E. tenella infected group that was fed diet supplemented with Bacillus based probiotic compared with that in non-supplemented challenged group

Summary

Introduction

Coccidiosis, one of the most common parasitic disease in chicken caused by seven different intestinal habitual species of the genus Eimeria, including E. tenella, E. maxima, E. necatrix, E. mitis, E. brunetti, E. praecox, and E. acervulina [1]. E. tenella has been found one of the most common and pathogenic species, which occupies in the ceca of chicken and causes sever destruction of cecal epithelial cells and necrosis of the gut barrier, resulting in reduced nutrient absorption, decreased weight gain, and productivity of bird [2,3]. Live vaccines are highly expensive to produce, and their use can cause pathogenic strain reversion [4]. In this regard, potential alternatives and safe approaches should be emerged to treat the Eimeria infection

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Conclusion