GSE70334
Novel Pathways Revealed in Bursa of Fabricius Transcriptome in Response to Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) Infection
Purpose: This study is to more comprehensively understand the genome-wide host response to avian pathogen E. coli (APEC). Methods: Four-week-old male broiler chickens were infected with APEC O1 or given saline as a control. Bursas were collected at 1 and 5 days post-infection (dpi). Infected birds were classified based upon lesions in liver, pericardium and air sacs as having mild or severe pathology, representing resistant and susceptible phenotypes, respectively. Twenty-two individual bursa RNA libraries were sequenced, each yielding an average of 27 million single-end, 100-bp reads. Results: There were 2469 novel genes in a total of 16,603 detected. Large numbers of significantly differentially expressed (DE) genes were enriched in susceptible versus resistant birds and in susceptible versus non-infected birds at 5 dpi, as well as in 5 dpi versus 1 dpi susceptible birds. The DE genes represented signal transduction, immune response, and cell growth and death pathways. Conclusions: These data provide considerable insight into potential mechanisms of resistance to ExPEC infection, thus paving the way to develop strategies for ExPEC prevention and treatment, as well as enhancing innate resistance by genetic selection in animals. Overall design: Bursa mRNA profiles of six treatment groups were generated by deep sequencing, in four replicates, using Illumina HiSeq 2000.