title: Subtraction suppressive hybridisation analysis of differentially expressed genes associated with puberty in the goat hypothalamus.
abstract: The cost of developing replacement nanny goats could be reduced by decreasing the age at puberty because this way nanny goats could be brought into production at an earlier age. The aim of the present study was to screen genes related to puberty to investigate the molecular mechanisms of puberty. Subtracted cDNA libraries were constructed for hypothalami from juvenile (Group A), pubertal (Group B) and age-matched control pubertal (Group E) Jining grey (JG) and Liaoning cashmere (LC) goats using suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH). Differentially expressed genes were analysed by bioinformatics methods. There were 203 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the subtracted cDNA libraries that were differentially expressed between JG and LC goats at the juvenile stage, 226 that were differentially expressed at puberty and 183 that were differentially expressed in the age-matched control group. The differentially expressed ESTs in each subtracted cDNA library were classified as known gene, known EST and unknown EST according to sequence homology in the GenBank non-redundant (NR) and EST database. According to gene function analysis in the COG (Cluster of Orthologous Groups) database, the known genes were grouped into 10 subdivisions in Group A, into seven subdivisions in Group E and into nine subdivisions in Group B under three categories: cellular processes and signalling, information storage and processing, and metabolism. Pathway analysis in the KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway database of known genes revealed that the three pathways that most differentially expressed genes were involved in were metabolic pathways, Parkinson's disease and oxidative phosphorylation. Protein interaction analysis of the high homology genes revealed the most dominant network to be structure of ribosome/protein translation, oxidative phosphorylation and carbohydrate metabolism. The results reveal that the onset of puberty is a complex event involving multiple genes in multiple biological processes. The differentially expressed genes include genes related to both neuroendocrine and energy metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.|College of Agriculture, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, China.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.|Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Beijing 100097, China.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.|Corresponding author. Email: mxchu@263.net.
authors.forename: M X
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, China.
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Q Y
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Germplasm Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: GNAS; Gria 3; bioinformatic analysis; carbohydrate metabolism; energy metabolism; onset of puberty; oxidative phosphorylation; subtracted cDNA library