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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #216764
Title: Using integrative genomics to elucidate genetic resistance to Marek's disease in chicken

Author
item Cheng, Hans
item NIIKURA, M - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item KIM, T - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item MAO, W - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item MACLEA, K - USDA-ARS-MWA-ADOL
item Hunt, Henry
item DODGSON, J - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item BURNSIDE, J - UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
item MORGAN, R - UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
item OUYANG, M - UNIV OF MED & DENTISTRY
item LAMONT, S - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item DEKKERS, J - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item FULTON, J - HY-LINE INTERNATIONAL
item SOLLER, M - HEBREW UNIV OF JERUSALEM
item MUIR, W - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Developments in Biologicals
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/12/2008
Publication Date: 8/12/2008
Citation: Cheng, H., Niikura, M., Kim, T., Mao, W., MacLea, K., Hunt, H., Dodgson, J., Burnside, J., Morgan, R., Ouyang, M., Lamont, S., Dekkers, J., Fulton, J., Soller, M., Muir, W. 2008. Using integrative genomics to elucidate genetic resistance to Marek's disease in chicken. In: Pinard M-H, Gay, C., Pastoret, P-P, Dodet, B., editors. Integrative Genomics for Disease Resistance: Animal Genomics for Animal Health. Developments in Biologicals. Basel, Switzerland: Karger. p. 365-372.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: While rearing birds in confinement and at high density have proven to be very successful practices for producing poultry meat and eggs, these conditions help promote the spread of infectious diseases. Consequently, the poultry industry places great emphasis on disease control measures, primarily at the animal husbandry level. The field of genomics offers great promise to complement these current control measures by providing information on the molecular basis for disease, disease resistance, and vaccinal immunity. In this review, we briefly summarize some of our efforts to apply several genomic and functional genomics approaches to identify genes and pathways that confer genetic resistance to Marek’s disease (MD), a herpesvirus-induced T-cell lymphoma of chickens. By utilizing the “top-down” approach of QTL to identify genomics regions, and integrating them with “bottom-up” approaches of transcript profiling and Marek’s disease virus (MDV)-chicken protein-protein interactions, we reveal three genes that confer resistance to MD and a number of other positional candidate genes of high confidence. These genes can be further evaluated in poultry breeding programs to see if they confer genetic resistance to MD. This integrative genomics strategy can be applied to other infectious diseases. The impact of the genome sequence and other technological advancements are also discussed.