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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Grafting of Beads into Developing Chicken Embryo Limbs to Identify Signal Transduction Pathways Affecting Gene Expression
Published on: January 17, 2016
The transcriptome of early chicken embryos reveals signaling pathways governing rapid asymmetric cellularization and
Young Sun Hwang1, Minseok Seo2,3, Bo Ram Lee1
1Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Abstract:
The phylogenomics and comparative functional genomics of avian species were investigated in the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) project because of the important evolutionary position of birds and their value as a research model. However, the systematic profiling of transcriptional changes prior to oviposition has not been investigated in avian species because of the practical difficulties in obtaining pre-oviposited eggs. In this study, a total of 137 pre-oviposited embryos were collected from hen ovaries and oviducts and subjected to RNA-sequencing analyses. Two waves of chicken zygotic genome activation (ZGA) were observed. Functionally distinct developmental programs involving Notch, MAPK, Wnt and TGFβ signaling were separately detected during cleavage and area pellucida formation. Furthermore, the early stages of chicken development were compared with the human and mouse counterparts, highlighting chicken-specific signaling pathways and gradually analogous gene expression via ZGA. These findings provide a genome-wide understanding of avian embryogenesis and comparisons among amniotes.
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