Comparative Transcriptome Profiling of Ovary Tissue between Black Muscovy Duck and White Muscovy Duck with High- and Low-Egg Production

Abstract

The egg-laying rate is an important indicator for evaluating fertility of poultry. In order to better understand the laying mechanism of Muscovy ducks, gene expression profiles and pathways of ovarian tissues in high- and low-laying black (BH and BL) and white Muscovy ducks (WH and WL) during the peak production period were performed by using RNA-seq. The total number of reads produced for each ovarian sample ranged from 44,344,070 to 47,963,328. A total of 113, 619 and 87 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in BH-vs-WH, BL-vs-BH and BL-vs-WL, respectively. Among them, 54, 356 and 49 genes were up regulated and 59, 263 and 38 genes were down regulated. In addition, there were only 10 up-regulated genes in WL-vs-WH. In the comparison of DEGs in black and white Muscovy ducks, two co-expressed DEG genes were detected between BH-vs-WH and BL-vs-WL and seven DEGs were co-expressed between BL-vs-BH and WL-vs-WH. The RNA-Seq data were confirmed to be reliable by qPCR. Numerous DEGs known to be involved in ovarian development were identified, including TGFβ2, NGFR, CEBPD, CPEB2, POSTN, SMOC1, FGF18, EFNA5 and SDC4. Gene Ontology (GO) annotations indicated that DEGs related to ovarian development were mainly enriched in biological processes of “circadian sleep/wake cycle process,” “negative regulation of transforming growth factor-β secretion,” “positive regulation of calcium ion transport” in BH-vs-WH and “cell surface receptor signaling pathway,” “Notch signaling pathway” and “calcium ion transport” in BL-vs-BH. Besides, “steroid biosynthetic process,” “granulosa cell development” and “egg coat formation” were mainly enriched in BL-vs-WL and “reproduction,” “MAPK cascade” and “mitotic cell cycle” were mainly enriched in WL-vs-WH. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and ovarian steroidogenesis were the most enriched in Muscovy duck ovary transcriptome data. This work highlights potential genes and pathways that may affect ovarian development in Muscovy duck.

Hypothalamic and ovarian transcriptome profiling reveals potential candidate genes in low and high egg production of white Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata)

“…RNA sequencing ( RNA-seq ), a method based on next-generation sequencing ( NGS ), offers the opportunities to provide ample details about the transcriptional landscape of a particular organism with the usage of advanced molecular biology techniques and bioinformatics ( Wang et al, 2008 ). Recently, different studies have used this method for identification of genes or molecular pathways responsible for egg production in different species of poultry such as in chicken ( Wang and Ma, 2019 ), Jinghai Yellow chicken ( Zhang et al, 2019 ), Luhua Chicken ( Wu et al, 2017 ), Turkey ( Brady et al, 2020 ), Black and White Muscovy duck ( Bao et al, 2021 ), Leizhou Black duck ( Zou et al, 2020 ), and Goose ( Ouyang et al, 2020 ). However, no reports have used hypothalamus and ovary tissues of White Muscovy ducks to identify potential genes responsible for egg production.…”

Distinct Signaling Pathways Distinguish in vivo From in vitro Growth in Murine Ovarian Follicle Activation and Maturation

“…We also showed strong upregulation of the expression of several other TGF-β superfamily associated genes, such as Ngfr, Smad6, Fgf9, Pitx2, and Snx25, in oocytes from primary follicles. Ngfr encodes nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR), which is a multifunctional cell surface receptor and is expressed in several cell types (Bao et al, 2020). Although Ngfr is known for its function in nervous system development, a previous study described Ngfr expression and its critical role in regulating the growth, development, and function of reproductive organs (Bu et al, 2016).…”

The study of candidate genes in the improvement of egg production in ducks – a review

“…Black and White Muscovy duck are vastly raised in China. Bao et al. (2020) examined the transcriptome profiling of the ovary tissues between these 2 ducks using high and low egg production.…”

“…Based on their findings, 113, 619, and 87 DEGs were identified in the Black high ( BH ) and White high ( WH ), Black low ( BL ) and BH, and BL and White low ( WL ), respectively. Based on their DEGs within the BH and BL, several genes such as TGFβ2, NGFR, CEBPD, CPEB2, POSTN, SMOC1, FGF18, EFNA5, and SDC4 that might be involved in the egg production of Muscovy duck were identified ( Bao et al., 2020 ).…”

“…The reproductive performance which is an important economic trait of poultry species is mainly determined by egg production ( Bao et al., 2020 ). The key objective of duck breeders is to increase egg production, although this trait is affected by many factors ranging from nutrition, environment, disease, gene expression, and others ( Hu et al, 2021 ) as shown in Figure 1 (Although, we reviewed only about the genetic factors).…”