ARS | Publication request: Host Genetics and Vaccine Efficacy: Global gene expression differentiation induced by vaccine and MDV in MD resistant and susceptible chickens based on Next-Gen RNA-Seq reads

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 30, 2012
Publication Date: January 13, 2013
Citation: Zhang, H., Chang, S., Xie, Q., Song, J., Ernst, C. 2013. Host Genetics and Vaccine Efficacy: Global gene expression differentiation induced by vaccine and MDV in MD resistant and susceptible chickens based on Next-Gen RNA-Seq reads [abstract]. Plant and Animal Genome XXI Conference, January 12-16, 2013, San Diego, California. A-W640. Available: https://pag.confex.com/pag/xxi/webprogram/Paper5459.html.

Technical Abstract: Marek’s disease (MD) is a herpesvirus-induced disease of poultry and it continues to threaten the poultry industry worldwide as MD virus (MDV) evolves to escalate the virulence of field strains. MD has been primarily controlled by vaccination and management measures. This study aimed to compare the protective efficacy of two commonly used MD vaccines, Herpesvirus of Turkey (HVT) and CVI988/Rispens, in MD resistant and susceptible chickens under controlled experimental conditions. The experiment consisted of five treatment groups for each of the MD resistant and susceptible lines. The treatment groups were HVT, Rispens, MDV, HVT plus MDV, and Rispens plus MDV. No birds in the HVT or Rispens groups developed MD in either line. Almost all of the birds in the MDV groups of both resistant and susceptible lines developed MD (94% and 100%, respectively). However, the MDV group of the resistant line survived significantly more days than the susceptible line (35±4 vs. 18±2 days post infection, respectively). HVT and Rispens conveyed comparable protection in the resistant chickens (protective index or PI = 91% vs. 87%, respectively) but significantly different protection in the susceptible chickens (PI = 25% vs. 80%, respectively). Total RNA was extracted from spleen samples at 5, 10, and 21 days post infection (DPI) for each treatment group and cDNA libraries were constructed using Illumina TruSeq kits followed by RNA deep sequencing on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 system. On average, there were more than 207 (200-220) million reads that passed quality control filter for each sample. More than 94% of the reads had a Phred quality score greater than 30. Preliminary analysis of the RNA reads of all treatment groups suggests that global gene expression differed between the MD resistant and susceptible lines of chickens, and HVT as well as CVI988/Rispens induced differential gene expression with or without MDV challenge at 5, 10, and 21 DPI. It is anticipated that further analyses of the RNA-Seq data will provide insight on host genes and pathways that modulate vaccine immunity and protective efficacy.