Broodiness, a maternal behavior and instinct for natural breeding in poultry, inhibits egg production and affects the poultry industry. Phenotypic and physiological factors influencing broodiness in poultry have been extensively studied, but the molecular regulation mechanism of broodiness remains unclear. Effective research strategies focusing on broodiness are hindered by limited understanding of goose developmental biology.
In a recent study published by researchers from Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, they established the transcriptomes of goose follicles at egg-laying and broody stages by using RNA sequencing service and compared the sequenced transcriptomes of three types of follicles (small white, large white and small yellow). It was found that there were 92 up-regulated and 84 down-regulated transcription factors and 101 up-regulated and 51 down-regulated hormone-related genes. Many of these genes code for proteins involved in hormone response, follicular development, autophagy, and oxidation. Moreover, the contents of progesterone and estradiol in follicles were found to be altered, and the autophagy levels of follicles were enhanced during the broody stage.
Analysis of differentially expressed hormone-related genes during the period between egg-laying and broody goose follicles
(a) Up-regulated hormone-related genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese. (b) Down-regulated hormone-related genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese. (c) Heatmap of hormone-pathway genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese. (d) Heatmap of progesterone-related genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese. (e) Heatmap of steroid-related genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese. (f) Heatmap of GnRH-related genes of SWF, LWF and SYF from egg-laying and broody geese.
These results suggest that hormone- and autophagy-signaling pathways are critical for controlling broodiness in the goose. Researchers demonstrated that transcriptome analysis of egg-laying and broody Zhedong white goose follicles provided novel insights into broodiness in birds.
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References
J. Yu, E. Y. Lou, A. Zhao (2016) Transcriptome analysis of follicles reveals the importance of autophagy and hormones in regulating broodiness of Zhedong white goose Sci. Rep. 6:36877 doi: 10.1038/srep36877 [article]