Transcriptome profiling of the hypothalamus during prelaying and laying periods in Sichuan white geese (Anser cygnoides).

The Sichuan White goose is a Chinese breed well known for the quality of its meat. However, reproductive performance in this goose is not ideal, and little information is available regarding the abundance of transcripts. To better understand the molecular mechanism(s) underpinning prelaying and laying periods in the Sichuan white goose, high-throughput RNA sequencing was performed to analyze the transcriptome in the hypothalamus. After sequencing and annotation, 26,921 unigenes were obtained, with 48 transcripts up-regulated in the prelaying period and 180 transcripts up-regulated during the laying period. These transcripts were primarily related to diseases, cancers, signaling molecules and interactions, the nervous system and the immune system. Eight transcripts were selected for further analyses with quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The qRT-PCR results were mostly consistent with those from the high-throughput RNA sequencing. Among these transcripts, serine/threonine-protein kinase (AMPK), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and NADH dehydrogenase 1 (ND1) were differentially expressed during the prelaying and laying periods. The results of this study provide a useful resource for future studies examining the hypothalamus in geese.