The number of days (DN) when hens lay fertile eggs as well as the number of fertile eggs (FN) were
produced after a single artificial insemination (AI), including the two duration of fertility (DF) traits.
Indeed, they are the key production performance that associates with the production cost of hatching
egg when its determination the interval between successive artificial inseminations. However, the
relevant genes response for regulating the DF has not been uncovered yet. Therefore, we performed a
weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to investigate the insight into co-expression
gene modules on DF process in hens. The total mRNA was extracted from the utero-vaginal junction
(UVJ, with the sperm storage function in hen’s oviduct which is the biological basis for DF) of 20 hens
with several levels of DF traits, and performed transcriptome sequences of mRNA. As a result, three
co-expression gene modules were identified to be highly correlated with DF traits. Moreover, the
expression changes of top 5 hub genes in each module with DF traits were further confirmed in other
20 hens by RT-PCR. These findings highlighted the co-expression modules and their affiliated genes as
playing important roles in the regulation of DF traits. |
