Expression signatures of microRNAs and their targeted pathways in the adipose tissue of chickens

As the chick transitions from embryonic to post-hatching life, its metabolism must quickly undergo a dramatic switch in its major energy source. The chick embryo derives most of its energy from the yolk, a lipid-rich/carbohydrate-poor source. Upon hatching the chick must then be able to utilize a lipid-poor/carbohydrate-rich source (feed) as its main form of energy. In this project we used NGS to generate miRNome and transcriptome profiles of the adipose tissue during the transition from late embryonic to early post-hatch development. Specifically, these profiles were produced at embryonic stages E18 and E20 and post-hatch stages D0, D1, and D3.

当雏鸡从胚胎发育阶段过渡至破壳后生命阶段时，其代谢必须快速完成主要能量来源的剧烈转换。雏鸡胚胎的绝大部分能量来源于卵黄——一种脂质丰富、碳水化合物匮乏的能量基质。破壳后，雏鸡则需能够利用脂质匮乏、碳水化合物丰富的日粮作为主要能量供给来源。在本研究中，我们借助下一代测序技术（Next-Generation Sequencing，NGS），获取了雏鸡从胚胎晚期到破壳早期发育过程中脂肪组织的小RNA组（miRNome）与转录组（transcriptome）谱学数据。具体而言，这些谱学数据分别采集于胚胎发育第18天（E18）、第20天（E20）以及破壳后第0天（D0）、第1天（D1）和第3天（D3）。