The study was conducted to investigate the transcriptomic differences of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis between Xinjiang Yili geese with high and low egg production and to find candidate genes regulating the egg production of Xinjiang Yili geese. The 8 selected Xinjiang Yili Geese with high or low egg production (4 for each group) were 3 years old, with good health, and under the same feeding condition. High-throughput sequencing technology was used to sequence cDNA libraries of the hypothalami, pituitary glands, and ovaries. The sequencing data were compared and analyzed, and the transcripts with significant differences were identified and analyzed with bioinformatics. The study showed that the transcriptome sequencing data of the 24 samples contained a total of 1,176,496,146 valid reads and 176.47 gigabase data. Differential expression analyses identified 135, 56, and 331 genes in the hypothalami, pituitary glands, and ovaries of Xinjiang Yili geese with high and low egg production. Further annotation of these differentially expressed genes in the non-redundant protein sequence database (Nr) revealed that 98, 52, and 309 genes were annotated, respectively. Through the annotations of GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) databases, 30 candidate genes related to the egg production of Xinjiang Yili geese were preliminarily selected. The gap junction, focal adhesion, and ECM-receptor interaction signaling pathways were enriched with the hypothalamic, pituitary, and ovarian differentially expressed genes, and the calcium signaling pathway was enriched with the pituitary and ovarian differentially expressed genes. Thus, these pathways in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis may play an important role in regulating egg production of Xinjiang Yili geese. The results provided the transcriptomic information of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis of Xinjiang Yili geese and laid the theoretical basis for revealing the molecular mechanisms regulating the egg-laying traits of Xinjiang Yili geese.

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Background The development of the ovaries is an important factor that affects egg production performance in geese. Ovarian development is regulated by genes that are expressed dynamically and stage-specifically. The transcriptome profile analysis on ovarian tissues of goose at different egg laying stages could provide an important basis for screening and identifying key genes regulating ovarian development. Results In this study, 4 ovary tissues at each breeding period of pre-laying (PP), laying (LP), and ceased-laying period (CP), respectively, with significant morphology difference, were used for RNA extraction and mRNAs, lncRNAs, and miRNAs comparison in Yili geese. CeRNA regulatory network was constructed for key genes screening. A total of 337, 1136, and 525 differentially expressed DE mRNAs, 466, 925, and 742 DE lncRNAs and 258, 1131 and 909 DE miRNAs were identified between PP and LP, between CP and LP, and between CP and PP groups, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed mRNAs and non-coding RNA target genes were mainly involved in the cell process, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, phagosome, calcium signaling pathway, steroid biosynthesis and ECM-receptor interaction. Differential genes and non-coding RNAs, PDGFRB, ERBB4, LHCGR, MSTRG.129094.34, MSTRG.3524.1 and gga-miR-145–5p, related to reproduction and ovarian development were highly enriched. Furthermore, lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks related to ovary development were constructed. Conclusions Our study found dramatic transcriptomic differences in ovaries of Yili geese at different egg-laying stages, and a differential lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network related to cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis and involved in stromal follicle development were established and preliminarily validated, which could be regarded as a key regulatory pathway of ovarian development in Yili geese.

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