The Expression of Pituitary Gland Genes in Laying Geese

The purpose of this study was to detect differential expression of genes in the pituitary gland in laying geese by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH). Pituitary glands from pre-laying and laying geese were dissected for mRNA extraction. The cDNA from pituitary glands of pre-laying geese was subtracted from the cDNA from the pituitary glands of laying geese (forward subtraction). The reverse subtraction was also performed. We screened 384 clones with possible differentially expressed gene fragments by differential screening. Sixty five clones from the differential screening results were subjected to gene sequence determination and further analysis. We found that at least 19 genes were highly expressed in the pituitary glands of laying geese compared with pre-laying geese. Among these, six genes, including four novel genes were confirmed by virtual Northern analysis. We found that prolactin and visinin-like protein were highly expressed in the pituitary glands of laying geese compared with that from the pre-laying geese (P < 0.05). Further investigation is needed to demonstrate specific functions of the novel genes discovered in the current study.