Transcriptome analysis reveals differentially expressed genes associated with high rates of egg production in chicken hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis

The hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis regulates the breeding process cycle of laying hens. However, the key regulatory genes of the HPO axis and pathways that drive chicken egg laying performance remain elusive. A total of 856 Chinese Luhua chicken was raised and the highest two hundred and the lowest two hundred chicken egg production were considered as high egg production (HEP) and low egg production (LEP) according to the total egg number at 300 days of age, respectively. RNA-seq sequencing (RNA-Seq) was conducted to explore the chicken transcriptome from the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and ovary tissue of 6 Chinese Luhua chicken with 3 high and low-rate egg production. In total, 76.09 Gb RNA-seq sequences were generated from 15 libraries with an average of 5.07 Gb for each library. Further analysis showed that 414, 356 and 10 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in pituitary gland, ovary and hypothalamus between HEP and LEP chickens, respectively. In pituitary gland, DEGs were involve in regulation of cellular glucose homeostasis, Ras protein signal transduction, negative regulation of hormone secretion. In Ovary DEGs were mainly involved in embryonic organ development, regulation of canonical Wnt signaling, response to peptide hormone. Our study identified DEGs that regulate mTOR signaling pathway, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, Tryptophan metabolism and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways at HPO-axis in laying hens. These important data contribute to improve our understanding of reproductive biology of chicken and isolating effective molecular markers that can be used for genetic selection in Chinese domestic Luhua chicken.