Comparison of Gene Expression Profiles of Pituitary Glands from Heat Stressed and Non-Heat Stressed Broiler Chickens

As the global climate continues to increase, there is a need to identify genetic alleles that confer increased temperature resilience on farmed animals and crops.  Our group is using comparative transcriptomics to identify differences in gene expression between heat stressed and non-heat stressed birds.  The pituitary is a neuroendocrine organ that secretes hormones affecting the response to stress.  A heat stress study was conducted in which Ross 708 broilers were heat stressed at 39 degrees C for 8 hours per day from 21 to 42 days of age.  At 42 days of age, pituitaries were removed and placed in liquid nitrogen.  Total RNA was extracted and RNA-seq libraries were created sequenced at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.  As the sequencing data is received, analysis of the high-throughput transcriptome will be performed via differential gene expression and relative tissue expression analysis.  Once this process is completed (currently in progress), gene lists will be uploaded to PathRings for pathway analysis.