U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 close



Research
                Research Home
                            National Programs
                            Research Projects
                            Scientific Manuscripts
                            International Engagement
                            Scientific Software/Models
                            Databases and Datasets
                            Office of Scientific Quality Review
            Media
                News & Features
                            Multimedia
                            Briefing Room
                            Down on the Farm
                            Press Room
                            Science in Your Shopping Cart
                            Scientific Discoveries
                            Tellus
                            Under the Microscope
            About ARS
                About ARS Home
                            Staff Directory
                            Labs and Research Centers (Map)
                            Headquarter Offices
                            Organizational Chart
                            Employee Services (REE Employees Only)
                            Office of Outreach, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity
            Work With Us
                Work With Us Home
                            ARS Vacancies at USAJOBS
                            Careers at ARS Information
                            Scientific Collaborations
                            Extramural Agreements
                            1890 Faculty Research Sabbatical ProgramSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications

Title:   Author  item
                                            Lillehoj, Hyunitem
                                            KIM, DUK KYUNG - VIS SCI ANRI, ARSitem
                                            KIM, CHUL HONG - VIS SCI ANRI, ARSitem
                                            LAMONT, SUSAN - ISU AMES,IA
  Submitted to: Animal Genetics
                                    Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 7/23/2008
                                    Publication  Date: 9/21/2008
                                    Citation: Lillehoj, H.S., Kim, D., Kim, C., Lamont, S.J. 2008. Immune-related gene expression in two B-complex disparate, genetically inbred Fayoumi chicken lines that differ in susceptibility following Eimeria maxima infection. Animal Genetics. 87:433-443.Interpretive Summary: Recently, explosion of animal genomics technology allowed complete genome sequencing of many agricultural animals including poultry and there are now more than 580,000 chicken EST sequences from a wide variety of tissues and developmental stages publicly available (http://www.tigr.org/tdb/tgi/). Therefore, application of high-throughput genomic analyses is allowing the identification of transcriptional regulations involved in the immune response and large-scale gene expression profiles of host responses to infection provide enormous information of the interactions between pathogens and the host immune system.  The Fayoumi breed, which originated in Egypt, was imported to the United States in 1954 primarily because of its reported resistance to the avian leukosis.  In this paper, we investigated two sublines of chickens which are derived from the original Fayoumi breed.  Thw two lines, M5.1 and M15.2 congenic pair of lines share an identical genetic background and differ only in the microchromosome bearing the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and show different disease susceptibility to Eimeria parasites, which is causing more than $ 3.2 million annual economic loss.  The present study was conducted by ARS scientists in collaboration with Iowa State University scientists to compare gene expression profiles between these two chicken congenic lines, which show a difference in disease resistance to coccidiosis, using our avian intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte microarray (AVIELA). The AVIELA is specific for mucosal transcriptional investigations including immune response and the results showed that the changes in transcriptional regulation are increased during coccidiosis progress, and the higher number of differentially expressed genes arises because the more susceptible line has great pathology, which induces the gene-expression changes. These findings will help poultry industry to devise a genetic selection strategy to improve genetic disease resistance to intestinal parasites of broiler birds.
                                Technical Abstract: This study was conducted to discriminate the gene expression profiles following Eimeria maxima infection between two B complex congenic lines (lines M5.1 and M15.2) of Fayoumi chickens which display differences in disease resistance and innate immunity against avian coccidiosis.  A cDNA microarray, constructed from 10,162 elements including 9,668 EST of chicken intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL), was used to compare the transcript levels in IELs of the M5.1 and M15.2 lines from uninfected and E. maxima infected birds.  When compared to uninfected controls and using a cutoff of > 2.0-fold alteration (P < 0.05), M5.1 demonstrated altered expression of 1 (down-regulated), 12 (6 up, 6 down), and 18 (5 up, 13 down) mRNAs at 3, 4, and 5 days post-infection respectively.  In the M15.2 line, altered expression was observed in 6 (3 up, 3 down), 29 (11 up, 18 down), and 32 (8 up, 24 down) transcripts at the 3 time points, compared with uninfected controls.  Comparison of the expression levels between M5.1 and M15.2 chickens following E. maxima infection revealed alterations in 32 (10 up, 22 down), 98 (43 up, 55 down), and 92 (33 up, 59 down) mRNAs at the 3 time points.  Functional analysis using Gene Ontology categorized the genes exhibiting the different expression pattern between two chicken lines into several GO terms including immunity and defense.  In summary, transcriptional profiles showed that more gene expression changes occurred with E. maxima infection in the M15.2 than the M5.1 line.  The most gene expression differences between the two chicken lines were exhibited at days 4 and 5 following E. maxima infection.  The results of this study are a foundation of future studies to comprehend the innate immune system in the chicken gut and develop the strategy against avian coccidiosis.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov