Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) is an economically important disease of chickens caused by a type I gallid herpesvirus, infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV). The vaccines currently available are modified live viruses, which are effective in preventing disease outbreaks. However, they have often been associated with a variety of adverse effects including spread of vaccine virus to non-vaccinates, inadequate attenuation, production of latently infected carriers, and increased virulence as a result of in vivo passage. In this study, a recombinant fowlpox virus expressing glycoprotein B (gB) of ILTV (rFPV-ILTVgB) was constructed. Protection of specific pathogen free (SPF) and commercial chickens from ILT with the rFPV-ILTVgB and commercial ILTV vaccine (Nobilis ILT) were compared after challenge with a lethal dose of virulent ILTV. Both the rFPV-ILTVgB-and the Nobilis ILT-vaccinated SPF chickens were completely protected from death, while 90% of the unvaccinated chickens died after challenge. The immunized commercial chickens were also 100% protected with rFPV-ILTVgB, compared with 85% protected with Nobilis ILT. The protective efficacy was also measured by the antibody response to ILTV gB, isolation of challenge virus and polymerase chain reaction amplification of the ILTV thymidine kinase gene after challenge. The results showed that rFPV-ILTVgB could be a potential safe vaccine to replace current modified live vaccines for preventing ILT.

DNA methylation is a heritable epigenetic mechanism that participates in gene regulation under abiotic stresses in plants. Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is typically considered a drought-tolerant crop but highly susceptible to waterlogging, a property attributed to its presumed origin in Africa or India. Understanding DNA methylation patterns in sesame under drought and waterlogging conditions can provide insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying its contrasting responses to these principal abiotic stresses. Here, we combined Methylation-Sensitive Amplified Polymorphism and transcriptome analyses to profile cytosine methylation patterns, gene expression alteration, and their interplay in droughttolerant and waterlogging-tolerant sesame genotypes under control, stress and recovery conditions. Our data showed that drought stress strongly induced de novo methylation (DNM) whereas most of the loci were demethylated (DM) during the recovery phase. In contrast, waterlogging decreased the level of methylation under stress but during the recovery phase, both DM and DNM were concomitantly deployed. In both stresses, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were highly correlated with the methylation patterns. We observed that DM was associated with the up-regulation of the DEGs while DNM was correlated with the down-regulation of the DEGs. In addition, we sequenced 44 differentially methylated regions of which 90% overlapped with the promoters and coding sequences of the DEGs. Altogether, we demonstrated that sesame has divergent epigenetic programs that respond to drought and waterlogging stresses. Our results also highlighted the possible interplay among DNA methylation and gene expression, which may modulate the contrasting responses to drought and waterlogging in sesame.

Teat number is an extremely valuable trait for sow reproduction performance and piglet survival. Here, we used genotyping-by-sequencing and a general liner model to carry out genome-wide analysis of sow total teat number in an Erhualian population. The results indicated that eight SNPs on chromosomes 4, 5, 9 and 10 were significant genome wide (Bonferroni method, P < 2.85E-7) for sow total teat number. Validation analyses were performed in 298 Erhualian and 904 Large White sows using these significant SNPs and the general liner model procedure in sas. Finally, only the SNP on chromosome 5 was found to be significantly associated with sow teat number in both populations. The GG genotype individuals had 2.23 and 0.82 more teat numbers respectively than did the AA genotype individuals in these two populations (P < 0.05). According to the expression and annotation analyses, we inferred the presence of a gene or lincRNA that could affect teat number by regulating other genes and ultimately affecting the mammogenesis of pigs. Further studies using methods such as Cas9 editing and gene silencing analysis are necessary for additional function analysis.