BioProject

By using a 44k chicken Agilent microarray, we systematically analyzed the chicken hypothalamus transcriptome response to thermal stress. Twelve hypothalamus samples were chosen from three groups (four samples per group) to be used in chicken genome microarray to examine differential gene expression.We compared the expression profiles between each pairs of the three groups using the microarray data. Totally, 2474 genes were found to be differentially expressed in the three comparisons with p<0.05 and fold change (FC) higher than 1.5 and the genes were mainly involved in self-regulation and compensation required to maintain homeostasis, including heat shock protein family, enzyme and the hormone, neurotransmitter, cell-cell signaling, metabolism and cytokines. The transcripts of heat shock protein including Hsp 40 and Hsp 90 were significantly changed respond to thermal stress and genes involved in regulation of cell morphogenesis were significantly upregulated in heat stressed group with comparison to control and temperature recovery group. Additionally, the down-regulated genes in both heat stress and temperature recovery groups compared to control group were enriched in muscle organ development, striated muscle tissue development, cardiac muscle tissue development and muscle tissue development, which indicates that muscle development was inhibited during and in short-term after heat treatment. Most of genes dysregulated in heat stress group were found to be recovered in temperature recovery group, which confirmed their roles they could play in coping with heat stress. The present study provides a broader understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the stress response in chicken and discovery of novel genes that are regulated in a thermal stress specific manner. Overall design: Hypothalamus samples were collected from non-heat treated group (reared at 25C, used as control), 24h 34C treated group (heat stress treated group) and temperature recovery group (25C for 24h followed heat stress).