Expression profiles in different stages of the immune response to Salmonella enterica Pullorum in the chicken spleen

Salmonella enterica Pullorum（S. Pullorum） is one of the most important pathogens in poultry. A better understanding of the immune response and molecular modulation resulting from infection by S. Pullorum will facilitates the control of this pathogen. In this study, we determined the relationships among identified differential expressed genes (DEGs) and pathways via deeply mining microarray data from Guangxi Huang Chicken challenged with S. Pullorum. The chicks were then sacrificed via cervical dislocation immediately after anesthesia with 150 mg/kg sodium pentobarbital. This process was repeated at 2 hours post-infection (hpi), 4 hpi, 8 hpi, 24 hpi, 3 days post-infection (dpi), 5dpi, 7dpi, 12dpi, and 21dpi.The spleens were used to carrying out the microarray experiment. After total RNA extraction and quality control for each splenic sample were performed according to the standard protocol provided by Agilent Technologies, two random mRNA samples collected from the challenged group were equally mixed to hybridize with one chicken whole genome expression chip (Agilent.SingleColor.26441） for each time point. In the challenged group, there were three biological replications (chips) for every time point. However, in the control group at each time point only one chip was used to hybridize with equally mixed mRNA sample containing the three control samples.