Plant & Animal Genomes XIX Conference

January 15-19, 2011
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Identification Of Differentially Expressed MicroRNAs Associated With Avian Influenza Virus Infection In Two Genetically Distinct Chicken Lines

Wang Ying¹ , Vinayak Brahmakshatriya¹ , Blanca Lupiani² , Sanjay M. Reddy² , Susan J. Lamont³ , Huaijun Zhou¹

¹  Department of Poultry Science, Texas A &M University College Station, TX 77843-2472, USA

²  Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4467, USA

³  Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Avian influenza virus (AIV) not only causes significant economic losses in poultry production, but also is a threat to human health. MicroRNAs have been shown to regulate host-virus interactions. The objective of this study was to identify microRNAs associated with AIV infections in two genetically distinct, highly inbred chicken lines that differ in AIV resistance. Fayoumi is resistant, and Leghorn is susceptible, to AIV infection. Three-week-old chickens were inoculated with 107 EID50 of H5N3 AIV, and total RNA was isolated from lung of infected and non-infected birds at 4 days post infection. The newly developed Agilent chicken miRNA microarray including 542 chicken microRNAs was utilized to identify microRNAs potentially associated with host response to AIV infection. Based on the cut-off P value of 0.05 and fold-change of 2, there were 69 and 63 miRNAs differentially expressed between infected and non-infected birds within Fayoumi and Leghorn lines, respectively. Between genetic lines, 49 and 31 miRNA were differentially expressed within infected and non-infected groups, respectively. More miRNAs were up-regulated than down-regulated with AIV infection in both genetic lines. Between genetic lines, more miRNAs were highly expressed in Fayoumi than Leghorn under both infected and non-infected status. Strong candidate miRNAs (differentially expressed in more than two comparisons) will be selected for further investigation on the mechanism of these miRNAs regulation of host response to AIV infection in poultry.