W571 Integrating Next Gen Seq Applications to Identify Marek's Disease Resistance Genes

Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012
Time: 9:00 AM
Room: Sunset
Hans H. Cheng , USDA, ARS, ADOL, East Lansing, MI
Sean MacEachern , Cobb-Vantress, Inc., Siloam Springs, AR
Suga Subramaniam , Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Sudeep Perumbakkam , Purdue University, West Lafeyette, IN
William Muir , Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Marek’s disease (MD), a lymphoproliferative disease caused by the highly oncogenic herpesvirus Marek's disease virus (MDV), continues to be a major disease concern to the poultry industry. The fear of MD is further enhanced by unpredictable vaccine breaks that result in devastating losses. The field of genomics offers one of the more exciting avenues for enhancing control of MD. By identifying genes that confer genetic resistance, it should become possible to select for birds with superior disease resistance. Genetic resistance to MD is a complex trait controlled by many genes. To identify these genes, we have been implementing and integrating genomic approaches that identify QTL, genes, and proteins that are associated with resistance to MD. The rationale for using more than one approach is that the strengths of each system can be combined to yield results of higher confidence. Another justification is that given the large volume of data produced by genomics, each method provides an additional screen to limit the number of targets to verify and characterize in future experiments. In this presentation, I will discuss our current efforts that use next generation sequencing to identify genes showing allele-specific expression in response to MDV infection, specific regions that bind targeted transcription factors, and selective sweeps.