Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 25;9(1):13860. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50148-6.
The number of days (DN) when hens lay fertile eggs as well as the number of fertile eggs (FN) were produced after a single artificial insemination (AI), including the two duration of fertility (DF) traits. Indeed, they are the key production performance that associates with the production cost of hatching egg when its determination the interval between successive artificial inseminations. However, the relevant genes response for regulating the DF has not been uncovered yet. Therefore, we performed a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to investigate the insight into co-expression gene modules on DF process in hens. The total mRNA was extracted from the utero-vaginal junction (UVJ, with the sperm storage function in hen's oviduct which is the biological basis for DF) of 20 hens with several levels of DF traits, and performed transcriptome sequences of mRNA. As a result, three co-expression gene modules were identified to be highly correlated with DF traits. Moreover, the expression changes of top 5 hub genes in each module with DF traits were further confirmed in other 20 hens by RT-PCR. These findings highlighted the co-expression modules and their affiliated genes as playing important roles in the regulation of DF traits.
母鸡单次人工授精后产可孵育种蛋的天数（DN）和产可孵育种蛋数（FN）以及两个受精持续时间（DF）性状。事实上，这些性状是与孵化种蛋生产成本相关的关键生产性能，在确定连续人工授精之间的间隔时需要考虑这些性状。然而，调节 DF 的相关基因反应尚未被揭示。因此，我们进行了加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA），以研究母鸡 DF 过程中相关基因模块的共表达情况。从具有不同 DF 性状的 20 只母鸡的子宫阴道交界处（UVJ）提取总 mRNA，该部位具有储存精子的功能，是 DF 的生物学基础，并进行了 mRNA 的转录组序列分析。结果，鉴定出三个与 DF 性状高度相关的共表达基因模块。此外，通过 RT-PCR 在另外 20 只母鸡中进一步验证了每个模块中与 DF 性状相关的前 5 个枢纽基因的表达变化。这些发现强调了共表达模块及其相关基因在调节 DF 性状中的重要作用。
