Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (5): 1905-1914.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.05.013

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Transcriptome Based Screening of Functional Genes Related to Heat Stress Resistance in Beijing You Chickens and Guangming Broilers

WANG Zixuan1,2, WANG Qiao2, ZHANG Jin2, Astrid Lissette Barreto Sánchez2, ZHENG Maiqing2, LI Qinghe2, CUI Huanxian2, AN Bingxing2, ZHAO Guiping2, WEN Jie2, LI Hegang1*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China;
    2. Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2022-11-04 Online:2023-05-23 Published:2023-05-20

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and signaling pathways between Beijing You chicken and Guangming No.2 broiler line B(Guangming broiler) in response to heat stress, and to reveal the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying heat tolerance of different chicken breeds by analyzing spleen transcriptomic data of two chicken breeds Beijing You chicken and Guangming No. 2 broiler line B (Guangming broiler) under heat stress and normal rearing conditions. The animals were 25-day-old Beijing You chickens and Guangming broilers under the same rearing managements. Heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (H/L), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) were measured, and spleen tissues were collected for RNA-Seq. WGCNA analysis was performed, in combination with gene expression matrix based on RNA-Seq data and the phenotypes, to screen the modules and genes with high correlation with the traits. Comparison of the transcriptome sequencing results between the control and heat stress groups showed that 313 DEGs in Beijing You chicken before and after heat stress, of which 169 genes were up-regulated and 144 genes were down-regulated; while 235 DEGs in Guangming broiler, of which 152 genes were up-regulated and 83 genes were down-regulated. Through WGCNA, 2 modules with high correlation with H/L were screened in Beijing You chicken, while 4 modules with strong correlation with H/L and T-AOC were screened in Guangming broiler. Screening of the Hub gene in the module revealed the presence of the TRIM29 gene in both breeds, which plays an important role under heat stress conditions. In this study, the differential patterns of gene expression in different chicken breeds under heat stress were revealed by RNA-Seq. The candidate genes related to heat tolerance were identified, which provided novel ideas and clues for further study of heat tolerance mechanism in chickens.

Key words: Beijing You chicken, Guangming broiler, heat stress, differentially expressed genes, WGCNA

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