Screening and Functional Annotation of Differentially Expressed Genes in Ovarian Tissue of Wanxi White Geese during Different Oviposition Phases

Background: Laying performance is a key metric for assessing avian reproductive efficiency. The differential gene expression profiles of the Wanxi white goose (WWG) ovarian tissue at different laying stages (pre-oviposition phase, oviposition phase and post-laying phase) were analyzed to mine for candidate genes and signaling pathways related to laying performance. Methods: Ovarian tissue samples were collected from WWG during the pre-oviposition phase (PP), oviposition phase (OP) and post-laying phase (LP) to compare the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the ovarian tissues during different oviposition phases. The expression of DEGs and proteins in ovarian tissues at different laying periods was detected by qRT-PCR technology and Western blot technology respectively. Result: A total of 1,701 (PP vs OP), 1,259 (OP vs LP) and 652 (PP vs LP) DEGs were screened and GO and KEGG functional enrichment annotation analysis showed that DEGs were significantly enriched in multiple biological processes and signaling pathways related to the laying performance and follicular development of WWG. These include neuroactive receptor-ligand interaction, ECM-receptor interaction and cytokine-cytokine interaction (p less than 0.05). A DEGs protein-protein interaction network was constructed and five hub genes (ITGB3, VTN, FN1, ITGA2 and VWF) were identified by multi-algorithm analysis using the CytoHubba plug-in. The GSEA enrichment analysis selected signaling pathways related to laying performance and reproductive development of geese (ECM-receptor interaction pathway and Ribosome signaling pathway) (|NES| greater than 1, FDR less than 0.25, p less than 0.05). Five DEGs were randomly selected for fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) verification.