Transcriptional profiling and pathway analysis reveal differences in pituitary gland function, morphology, and vascularization in chickens genetically selected for high or low body weight

Table 4 Top biological functions of DEGs within pituitary glands of HG and LG chickens

^aTop Biological Function	^bDEGs (#)	^cP-Value
Molecular and cellular function
Cell death	46	9.96E-05 – 2.25E-02
Cell cycle	19	1.27E-04 – 2.25E-02
Cell-to-cell signaling and interaction	26	6.86E-04 – 2.25E-02
Cellular compromise	6	3.87E-04 – 2.09E-02
Cellular growth and proliferation	46	1.24E-03 – 2.20E-02
Physiological system development and function
Cardiovascular system development and function	16	5.36E-05 – 2.25E-02
Organ morphology	12	5.36E-05 – 1.13E-02
Hematological system development and function	32	1.16E-04 – 2.05E-02
Tissue morphology	24	1.16E-04 – 2.05E-02
Endocrine system development and function	6	7.13E-04 – 2.25E-02

^aAs determined by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) biological function prediction
^bThe number of differentially expressed genes between HG and LG birds from our dataset contained within each category
^cP-values were determined by IPA software based on the number of DEGs from the dataset within each biological category divided by the total number of known genes assigned to that category within the database

ISSN: 1471-2164