Immunomodulatory effects of heat stress and lipopolysaccharide on the bursal transcriptome in two chicken lines

For this study, bursal transcriptome responses to an acute heat stress and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were investigated in a broiler line (heat and disease susceptible) and an inbred Fayoumi line (heat and disease resistant) of chickens. In a 2 x 2 design, 22 day-old birds were exposed to heat stress (35°C for 7 hours), lipopolysaccharide (100 µg/kg average body weight per line), or both stressors. Thermoneutral temperature (25°C) and phosphate buffered saline were used as the respective controls. Tissue samples were collected from the bursa of Fabricius and used to isolate high quality RNA. cDNA libraries (n = 31) were constructed and sequenced (2 technical replicates per library; 62 total datasets) on the HiSeq 2500.