P0593 Using Comparative Transcriptomics to Discover Key Transcripts Regulating Bird Egg Formation

Zhuocheng Hou , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Zheng He Zhang , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Yan Feng Fan , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Ying Zhang , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Long Liu , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Yang Liu , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Guiyun Xu , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Ning Yang , China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Oviparity is one of the most distinguishable characteristics which shared by all birds compared with mammals. Revealing genetic elements controlled bird egg formation has important meaning in terms of animal reproduction evolution, avian biology and bird breeding in commercial production. The clear egg formation process in the different tissues has critical help in the identifying genetic elements which regulate egg formation. We used 6 different samples extracted from commercial White-Leghorn layers and RNA-Seq to probe transcripts controlling egg formation in this study. In total, we obtained over than 161M reads from different samples. Gene annotation and functional analysis have found 1200 different expressed genes (DEGs) in the ovary compared with other tissues. Sixty DEGs were found dominantly expressed in the magnum which is the major tissue form egg white. There are about 1000 genes highly expressed in the uterus which is tissue form eggshell. Functional annotation revealed that these genes predominantly expressed in the ovary, magnum, isthmus and uterus are highly related with known biological functions in these tissues. Further, we also used qPCR to validate the DEGs in the different tissues. Using RNA-Seq data, we found lots of novel transcripts which hadn't been found before. Interesting, we use PCR to confirm 8 of the 10 assembled novel transcripts located in the chicken Z-chromosome which are uniquely expressed in the oviduct. These results also highlight novel transcripts in the chicken Z-chromosome are also potentially important to the egg formation.