title: Thymus transcriptome reveals novel pathways in response to avian pathogenic Escherichia coli infection.
abstract: Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) can cause significant morbidity in chickens. The thymus provides the essential environment for T cell development; however, the thymus transcriptome has not been examined for gene expression in response to APEC infection. An improved understanding of the host genomic response to APEC infection could inform future breeding programs for disease resistance and APEC control. We therefore analyzed the transcriptome of the thymus of birds challenged with APEC, contrasting susceptible and resistant phenotypes. Thousands of genes were differentially expressed in birds of the 5-day post infection (dpi) challenged-susceptible group vs. 5 dpi non-challenged, in 5 dpi challenged-susceptible vs. 5 dpi challenged-resistant birds, as well as in 5 dpi vs. one dpi challenged-susceptible birds. The Toll-like receptor signaling pathway was the major innate immune response for birds to respond to APEC infection. Moreover, lysosome and cell adhesion molecules pathways were common mechanisms for chicken response to APEC infection. The T-cell receptor signaling pathway, cell cycle, and p53 signaling pathways were significantly activated in resistant birds to resist APEC infection. These results provide a comprehensive assessment of global gene networks and biological functionalities of differentially expressed genes in the thymus under APEC infection. These findings provide novel insights into key molecular genetic mechanisms that differentiate host resistance from susceptibility in this primary lymphoid tissue, the thymus.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China, 225009.|Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50011.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames 50011.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames 50011.
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Nolan
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50011 sjlamont@iastate.edu.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lamont
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000378:metabolism / Q000662:veterinary*; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D008297:Male; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism*
keywords: APEC; RNASeq; immune response; thymus; transcriptome