Relationship between Differential Gene Expression in Ovary and Heterosis of Egg Number Traits in a Chicken Diallel Cross*

In order to understand the molecular basis of chicken heterosis in reproduction traits, mRNA differential display (DDRT-PCR) methods were used to analyze the differential gene expression of ovary tissue between hybrids and their parental lines in a 4×4 diallel cross, involving 4 chicken breeds, which were White Plymouth Rock (E), CAU Brown (D), Silkies (C) and White Leghorn (A). Total of 331 differential displayed cDNA bands from 1,161 were displayed in the 4×4 diallel cross combinations with 30 pairs of primers, which shows the differences of gene expression between hybrids and their parental lines were very obvious in quantity and quality. Seven types of differential expression patterns were found: Co-dominance expressed pattern (T1), under-expression of parental fragments in hybrids (T2), over-expression of parental fragments in hybrids (T3), hybrid-absence expressed pattern (T4), single parentspecific expressed pattern (T5), dominant expression fragments of single parent in hybrids (T6), hybrid-specific expressed pattern (T7). Correlation analysis indicated that there were significant correlations between the pattern of T3 and the heterosis percentage of egg number of 32-week and 42-week old chickens(p<0.01), while there were negative significant correlations between the pattern of T7 and the heterosis percentage of egg number of 32-week and 42 week-old birds (p<0.01). (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 6 :