Transcriptomic profiling of proteases and antiproteases in the liver of sexually mature hens in relation to vitellogenesis

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Cédric Cabau¹  Christelle Hennequet-Antier¹  Joël Gautron¹  Magali Berges¹  Yves Nys¹  Sophie Réhault-Godbert¹  Marie Bourin¹ 

[1] INRA, SIGENAE, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, 37380, F-37380, Nouzilly, France;

关键词: Proteases;    Antiproteases;    Liver;    Sex steroids;    Metabolism;    Transcriptomics;    Chicken egg;    Vitellogenesis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-13-457

 received in 2012-03-19, accepted in 2012-08-22,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMost egg yolk precursors are synthesized by the liver, secreted into the blood and transferred into oocytes, to provide nutrients and bioactive molecules for the avian embryo. Three hundred and sixteen distinct proteins have been identified in egg yolk. These include 37 proteases and antiproteases, which are likely to play a role in the formation of the yolk (vitellogenesis), as regulators of protein metabolism. We used a transcriptomic approach to define the protease and antiprotease genes specifically expressed in the hen liver in relation to vitellogenesis by comparing sexually mature and pre-laying chickens showing different steroid milieu.ResultsUsing a 20 K chicken oligoarray, a total of 582 genes were shown to be over-expressed in the liver of sexually mature hens (1.2 to 67 fold-differences). Eight of the top ten over-expressed genes are known components of the egg yolk or perivitelline membrane. This list of 582 genes contains 12 proteases and 3 antiproteases. We found that “uncharacterized protein LOC419301/similar to porin” (GeneID:419301), an antiprotease and “cathepsin E-A-like/similar to nothepsin” (GeneID:417848), a protease, were the only over-expressed candidates (21-fold and 35-fold difference, respectively) that are present in the egg yolk. Additionally, we showed the 4-fold over-expression of “ovochymase-2/similar to oviductin” (GeneID:769290), a vitelline membrane-specific protease.ConclusionsOur approach revealed that three proteases and antiproteases are likely to participate in the formation of the yolk. The role of the other 12 proteases and antiproteases which are over-expressed in our model remains unclear. At least 1/3 of proteases and antiproteases identified in egg yolk and vitelline membrane proteomes are expressed similarly in the liver regardless of the maturity of hens, and have been initially identified as regulators of haemostasis and inflammatory events. The lack of effect of sex steroids on these genes expressed in the liver but the products of which are found in the yolk suggests that these may be passively incorporated into the yolk rather than actively produced for that purpose. These results raise the question of the biological significance of egg yolk proteases and antiproteases, and more generally of all minor proteins that have been identified in egg yolk.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Bourin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.