Identification of differentially expressed genes in H5N1 infected chickens using meta-analysis of DNA microarray datasets

During the last years, gene expression profiling has revealed specific genes which are involved in the regulation of host response to several diseases. Avian Influenza infection is one of the important diseases in poultry industry. The aim of the present study was to identify significantly involved genes in H5N1 infection using the meta-analysis of two DNA microarray datasets of host response to influenza infection. The meta-analysis revealed that STK17B, CCL4, MCM9, IRF7 and IL6 were differentially expressed using Fisher, AW and maxP methods. We used real-time PCR to validate the differential expression of identified genes. For this aim, the previously H5N1-infected samples were used. The real-time PCR results of all five genes confirmed the differential expression between infected and non-infected samples and also the type of regulation obtained from meta-analysis significantly. The genes IL6, IRF7 and CCL4 were over expressed while STK17B and MCM9 were down expressed in infected samples. The results suggested that the meta-analysis is a robust method to find differentially expressed genes which may be ignored in individual analysis. These genes may play some critical roles in host response.