June 6, 2021Poultry ScienceOpen Access

Hypothalamic and ovarian transcriptome profiling reveals potential candidate genes in low and high egg production of white Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata)

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Why the study?

Low egg production is a major challenge in White Muscovy ducks, with little to no reports from hypothalamic and ovarian tissues to identify candidate genes responsible for egg production.

Structured PICO

Population

1,537 laying White Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata), from which 4 lowest producing (LP) and 4 highest producing (HP) were selected at 59 weeks of age

Intervention

RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling of the hypothalamus and ovary

Comparator

Lowest producing (LP) vs highest producing (HP) ducks

Outcome

Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and potential candidate genes responsible for egg productionsurrogate

Transcriptome profiling of the hypothalamus and ovary in White Muscovy ducks identified 10 candidate genes and several signaling pathways associated with high versus low egg production.

Implication

May inform breeding strategies for Muscovy duck egg yield; leaves open functional validation of candidate genes.

Abstract

In China, the low egg production rate is a major challenge to Muscovy duck farmers. Hypothalamus and ovary play essential role in egg production of birds. However, there are little or no reports from these tissues to identify potential candidate genes responsible for egg production in White Muscovy ducks. A total of 1,537 laying ducks were raised; the egg production traits which include age at first egg (days), number of eggs at 300 d, and number of eggs at 59 wk were recorded. Moreover, 4 lowest (LP) and 4 highest producing (HP) were selected at 59 wk of age, respectively. To understand the mechanism of egg laying regulation, we sequenced the hypothalamus and ovary transcriptome profiles in LP and HP using RNA-Seq. The results showed that the number of eggs at 300 d and number of eggs at 59 wk in the HP were significantly more (P < 0.001) than the LP ducks. In total, 106.98G clean bases were generated from 16 libraries with an average of 6.68G clean bases for each library. Further analysis showed 569 and 2,259 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the hypothalamus and ovary between LP and HP, respectively. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed 114 and 139 pathways in the hypothalamus and ovary, respectively which includes Calcium signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, Focal adhesion, MAPK signaling pathway, Apoptosis and Apelin signaling pathways that are involved in egg production. Based on the GO terms and KEGG pathways results, 10 potential candidate genes (P2RX1, LPAR2, ADORA1, FN1, AKT3, ADCY5, ADCY8, MAP3K8, PXN, and PTTG1) were identified to be responsible for egg production. Further, protein-protein interaction was analyzed to show the relationship between these candidate genes. Therefore, this study provides useful information on transcriptome of hypothalamus and ovary of LP and HP Muscovy ducks.