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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #420787

Research Project: Enhancing Genetic Resistance and Vaccinal Response to Control Marek's Disease, Infectious Laryngotracheitis, and Infectious Bursal Disease in Chicken

Location: Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research

Title: Comparative transcriptomic analysis of chicken immune organs affected by Marek's disease virus infection at a latency phase

Author
item DING, YI - Allen Institute
item Dunn, John
item Zhang, Huanmin
item ZHAO, KEIJI - National Heart, Lung And Blood Institute(NHLBI, NIH)
item SONG, JIUZHOU - University Of Maryland

Submitted to: Frontiers in Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Despite all of the control measures that the poultry industry has been practicing so far, Marek’s disease (MD), a tumor virus-induced lymphoma in susceptible chickens, remains a threat to the poultry industry. The annual economic loss by MD was estimated over $2 billion worldwide. The hope to improve this situation is to find an alternative strategy to combat this disease in poultry. That strategy has been recognized as genetic resistance to MD through breeding. To efficiently select for genetic resistant birds in breeding, understanding what genetic components confer such resistance is the key. This study has systemically analyzed the gene expression profiles in the immunity related lymphoid organs collected from a known resistant line and a susceptible line of birds post Marek’s disease virus challenge. We discovered genes with uniquely different expression levels between the genetic lines of birds and identified pathways and networks that would be very informative for future study. These findings advance the basic understanding of genetic resistance to MD and would provide genetic tools for genetic improvement against MD in chickens.

Technical Abstract: Over the past decades, MDV has dramatically evolved towards more virulent strains and remains a persistent threat to the world’s poultry industry. We performed genome-wide gene expression analysis in the spleen, thymus, and bursa tissues from MD-resistant line 63 and susceptible line 72 to explore the mechanism of MD resistance and susceptibility. We identified genes and pathways associated with the transcriptional response to MDV infection using the robust RNA sequencing approach. The transcriptome analysis revealed a tissue-specific expression pattern among immune organs when confronting MDV. At pathway and network levels, MDV infections influenced cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and cellular development in resistant and susceptible chicken lines. Meanwhile, we also observed different genetic responses between the two chicken lines: some pathways like Herpes simplex infection and Influenza A were found in line 63 spleen tissues, whereas metabolic-related pathways and DNA replication could only be observed in line 72 chickens. In summary, our research renders new perceptions of the MD progression mechanism and beckons further gene function studies into MD resistance.