Molecular tools to support metabolic and immune function research in the Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris)

Authors

Carl E. Darris, Tennessee State UniversityFollow
James E. Tyus II, Tennessee State UniversityFollow
Gary Kelley, Tennessee State UniversityFollow
Alexander J. Ropelewski, Carnegie Mellon UniversityFollow
Hugh B. Nicholas Jr., Carnegie Mellon University
Xiaofei Wang, Tennessee State UniversityFollow
Samuel N. Nahashon, Tennessee State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-7-2015

Abstract

Background

Guinea fowl (Numidia meleagris) production as an alternative source of meat and poultry has shown potential for economic viability. However, there has been little progress in characterizing the transcriptome of the guinea fowl. In this study RNA-sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly of several Guinea fowl tissues (pancreas, hypothalamus, liver, bone marrow and bursa) which play key roles in regulating feed intake, satiety, and immune function was performed using Illumina’s Hi-Seq 2000.

Results

74 million sequences were generated and assembled into 96,492 contigs using the Trinity software suite. Over 39,000 of these transcripts were found to have in silico translated protein sequences that are homologous to chicken protein sequences. Gene ontology analysis uncovered 416 transcripts with metabolic functions and 703 with immune function.

Conclusion

The transcriptome information presented here will support the development of molecular approaches to improve production efficiency of the guinea fowl and other avian species.

Recommended Citation

Darris, C.E., Tyus, J.E., Kelley, G. et al. Molecular tools to support metabolic and immune function research in the Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris). BMC Genomics 16, 358 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-1520-6