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| Functional Genomics of the Chicken |
| Written by Administrator | |
 Road Map for Exploration of Chicken Genome Now in Place, According to New Review of Functional Genomics of the Chicken.With Its Genome Sequenced and High-Throughput Genomic Research Tools Available, the Chicken Has Achieved Model Organism Status, Opening Up New Research Opportunities for Poultry Scientists and Biomedical Researchers - The Possibility Now Exists of Modifying the Phenotype of the Chicken to Fit Defined Production Goals. An invited review article in the current issue of Poultry Science describes, according to its authors, “the recent ascent of the chicken to model organism status” and provides “a road map for the large-scale exploration of the chicken genome.” The article, “Functional Genomics of the Chicken: A Model Organism” appears in the October 1, 2007 issue of Poultry Science, a research journal published monthly by The Poultry Science Association (PSA), and is authored by L. A. Cogburn, T. E. Porter, M. J. Duclos, J. Simon, S. C. Burgess, J. J. Zhu, H. H. Cheng, J. B. Dodgson, and J. Burnside. It is available to download free online at: http://ps.fass.org/cgi/reprint/86/10/2059 The article provides a detailed summary of the current status of research employing functional genomics in chickens. It complements and is the final chapter in a sequence of invited review papers on the movement from genetics to genomics in poultry research. (The earlier articles were published in the December 2006 issue of Poultry Science.) The earlier articles focused on variations in the structure of the genome and associations with performance traits. The current paper focuses in greater detail on variations in gene expression, and how these variations relate to specific traits. Model Organism Status: Potential Impact on Biomedical Research According to Susan J. Lamont, C.F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor, Iowa State University, the article validates the chicken‚s status as a model organism. “Poultry scientists have long known the chicken’s value as a research animal for investigations outside of poultry science. The authors have confirmed this in the strongest way possible by validating the chicken’s status as a model organism, and hence its usefulness to the biomedical and general scientific community for investigating scientific questions,” said Lamont. Biomedical researchers and poultry scientists focus on many overlapping questions regarding biological development, growth and viral resistance, and at an earlier time the chicken was commonly used for biomedical research. The first anti-cancer vaccine, for example, was discovered using poultry (against Marek’s disease). The later switch to the mouse as the preferred biomedical research animal was, according to Lamont, driven primarily by the availability of superior tools to investigate it. “Since the 2004 sequencing of the chicken genome and the development of improved functional genomic tools to investigate it, the gap between the mouse and chicken as model organisms for biomedical research has now been eliminated. Understanding the functional genomics of the chicken will make it much more attractive for biomedical researchers,” said Lamont. Powerful Tools for Genomic Research Create Opportunity to Modify Phenotype. Impact on Commercial Flocks Likely within 10 Years Researchers are now able to accelerate their efforts through the use of microarrays, which allow scientists to examine changes in the expression of all of a chicken’s genes simultaneously, rather than one at a time. Microarrays, and other new technologies such as marker-assisted selection, transgenics and RNA interference, give scientists the opportunity, for the first time, to use molecular genetics to modify the phenotype of the chicken to meet previously defined production goals. “The tremendous advances we have seen in functional genomics should give us the opportunity to have a positive impact on commercial flocks within a decade. We should begin seeing the integration of phenotypic improvements into breeding populations within 3-5 years, followed, after a typical lag time of about four years, by their appearance in commercial populations,” said Lamont. |
