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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #211249
Title: COMPARISON OF TRANSCRIPTIONAL RESONSES FROM AVIAN GUT TISSUES AFTER EIMERIA ACERVULINA AND E. MAXIMA INFECTIONS USING cDNA MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGY

Author
item KIM, C - USDA ARS ANRI APDL
item Lillehoj, Hyun
item BLISS, T - U DELAWARE NEWARK
item KEELER, C - U DELAWARE NEWARK
item PARK, D - USDA ARS ANRI APDL
item KIM, D - USDA ARS ANRI APDL
item LEE, S - USDA ARS ANRI APDL

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/17/2007
Publication Date: 10/20/2007
Citation: Kim, C.H., Lillehoj, H.S., Bliss, T.W., Keeler, C.L., Hong, Y.H., Park, D.W., Kim, D.K., Lee, S.H. 2007. Comparison of transcriptional resonses from avian gut tissues after eimeria acervulina and e. maxima infections using cdna microarray technology. International Symposium Animal Genomics for Animal Health. Oct 20-27. Paris, France.

Interpretive Summary: Coccidiosis is major parasitic disease of poultry of economic importance and is caused by several distinct species of intracellular protozoa, Eimeria. Current methods such as drugs and live parasite vaccines to control coccidiosis is not cost-effective and has many limitations. Therefore, timely development of alternative control methods for avian coccidiosis is needed. In this paper, ARS scientists collaborated with scientists at University of Delaware to investigate underlying host immunity factors which influence disease susceptibility to avian coccidiosis using functional genomics and immunological tools. The bioinformatic analysis of host response to this parasite indicated that infection with Eimeria elicits wide spectrum of local host immune response and the importance of pro-inflammatory cytokines in controlling early stage of coccidiosis. These results provide new insights for the nature of local host-parasite interaction which lead to protective immunity against coccidiosis. This new information will lead to a better control method for coccidiosis in poultry.

Technical Abstract: Understanding the host response during pathogen infection will extend our knowledge of pathogenesis and enhance the development of novel preventive methodologies against important infectious diseases. Microarray technology is a powerful tool to analyze host transcriptional responses. Coccidiosis resulting from Eimeria infections is an economically important disease in the poultry industry as well as immunobiologically important for understanding mucosal immunity in the chicken gut. In the current study, we prepared 9.8K chicken intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) cDNA microarray to compare transcriptional profiles following oral infection with E. acervulina (EA) or E. maxima (EM). The results showed that genes encoding lipid metabolism and ribosome complex proteins were modulated during both EA and EM infections. However, host immune-related response genes were slightly different between EA- or EM-infected gut tissues. The avian IEL cDNA microarray provides valuable information on host gene transcriptional regulation against pathogen invasion in the gut and this information can be used to expand our knowledge on chicken-coccidia interactions.