title: Crucial genes and pathways in chicken germ stem cell differentiation.
abstract: Male germ cell differentiation is a subtle and complex regulatory process. Currently, its regulatory mechanism is still not fully understood. In our experiment, we performed the first comprehensive genome and transcriptome-wide analyses of the crucial genes and signaling pathways in three kinds of crucial cells (embryonic stem cells, primordial germ cell, and spermatogonial stem cells) that are associated with the male germ cell differentiation. We identified thousands of differentially expressed genes in this process, and from these we chose 173 candidate genes, of which 98 genes were involved in cell differentiation, 19 were involved in the metabolic process, and 56 were involved in the differentiation and metabolic processes, like GAL9, AMH, PLK1, and PSMD7 and so on. In addition, we found that 18 key signaling pathways were involved mainly in cell proliferation, differentiation, and signal transduction processes like TGF-β, Notch, and Jak-STAT. Further exploration found that the candidate gene expression patterns were the same between in vitro induction experiments and transcriptome results. Our results yield clues to the mechanistic basis of male germ cell differentiation and provide an important reference for further studies.
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhentao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China, the Anatomy and Embryology Department, College of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ahmed Kamel
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Elsayed
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China, ynzhang@yzu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yani
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qisheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lian
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Beibei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Tianrong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guohong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: the Poultry Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Kehua
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yingjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yilin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20740, and.
authors.forename: Jiuzhou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hengmi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: From the College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, 225009 Yangzhou, China, yubcli@yzu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bichun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002645:Chickens; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013093:Spermatogonia / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: bioinformatics; cell differentiation; gene expression; microarray; stem cells
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