China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2022, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (9): 3273-3282.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2022.09.001

• Biotechnology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Bioinformatics Analysis of Differential Genes of Skin Feather Follicles in Chickens

ZHANG Hao, LIU Yixuan, ZHU Huiyuan, ZHANG Pengwei, LEI Yanru, GAO Chaoqun, LI Donghua, KANG Xiangtao   

  1. Key Laboratory of Livestock Resources (Poultry) Evaluation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450000, China
  • Received:2022-02-18 Online:2022-09-05 Published:2022-08-24

Abstract: 【Objective】 This study was aimed to screen the key genes, biological processes and signaling pathways that regulate feather follicle growth in the dorsal skin epithelium and mesenchyme during early development of chicken embryos, and provide a reference for understand the molecular mechanism of feather follicle growth during early development of chicken embryos.【Method】 The gene chip GSE62882 dataset was downloaded from the GEO database, and then the limma package of R language was used to conduct difference analysis on the dataset.At 7th and 9th days of embryonic stage, the differential genes of skin epithelium and mesenchyme, and co-upregulated and co-downregulated genes between shin epithelium and mesenchyme were screened.The STRING online database was used to analyze the protein-protein interaction network of differential genes, and co-upregulated and co-downregulated genes, visualized with Cytoscape 3.8.2 software, and the clusterProfiler package in R language was used to perform GO functional and KEGG pathway enrichment of differential genes, and co-upregulated and co-downregulated genes.【Result】 A total of 626 differential genes were screened, and 189 interaction relationships, 10 biological processes and 4 signaling pathways were obtained in skin epithelium on the 7th and 9th days of embryonic period.A total of 690 differential genes were screened, and 326 interaction relationships, 10 biological processes and 3 signaling pathways were obtained in skin mesenchyme on the 7th and 9th days of embryonic period.In skin epithelium and mesenchyme, 26 genes were co-upregulated and 48 genes were co-downregulated on the 7th and 9th days of embryonic period, and 34 interaction relationships of co-upregulated genes and co-downregulated genes were mainly enriched in Wnt signaling pathway.【Conclusion】 In this study, 26 co-upregulated genes and 48 co-downregulated genes were screened in skin epithelium and mesenchyme on the 7th and 9th days of embryonic period in chickens, which were mainly enriched in Wnt signaling pathway.The results provided a theoretical reference for the action mechanism of epithelium and mesenchyme in follicle growth and development.

Key words: chickens; epithelium; mesenchyme; functional annotation; enrichment analysis; Wnt signaling pathway

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