Differentially expressed genes and gene networks involved in pig ovarian follicular atresia.

Ovarian folliculogenesis corresponds to the development of follicles leading to either ovulation or degeneration, this latter process being called atresia. Even if atresia involves apoptosis, its mechanism is not well understood. The objective of this study was to analyze global gene expression in pig granulosa cells of ovarian follicles during atresia.

Muscle transcriptomic investigation of late fetal development identifies candidate genes for piglet maturity.

Background: In pigs, the perinatal period is the most critical time for survival. Piglet maturation, which occurs at the end of gestation, leads to a state of full development after birth. Therefore, maturity is an important determinant of early survival.

Transcriptome-wide investigation of genomic imprinting in chicken.

Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism by which alleles of some specific genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin manner. It has been observed in mammals and marsupials, but not in birds. Until now, only a few genes orthologous to mammalian imprinted ones have been analyzed in chicken and did not demonstrate any evidence of imprinting in this species.

Detection of QTL controlling metabolism, meat quality, and liver quality traits of the overfed interspecific hybrid mule duck.

The mule duck, an interspecific hybrid obtained by crossing common duck (Anas platyrhynchos) females with Muscovy (Cairina moschata) drakes, is widely used for fatty liver production. The purpose of the present study was to detect and map single and pleiotropic QTL that segregate in the common duck species, and influence the expression of traits in their overfed mule duck offspring. To this end, we generated a common duck backcross (BC) population by crossing Kaiya and heavy Pekin experimental lines, which differ notably in regard to the BW and overfeeding ability of their mule progeny.