Identification of the Genes that Confer Genetic Resistance to Marek’sDisease in Chicken Using SNP Markers

Marek’s disease (MD), one of the most threatening diseases to poultry industry, is contagious disease of domesticchickens induced by the Marek’s disease virus (MDV), a highly infectious and naturally oncogenic alphaherpesvirus. Enhancing resistance to MD in poultry is an attractive method to augment MD vaccines. Because the inadequacy in immune system occurs as a result of vaccine, the other method for avoiding from MD is to breed the chickens that are resistant to MD. In this study, ENO1, TPT1 and RBBP4 genes in chickens were screened whether they played a role inresistance to MD by using allele-specific expression (ASE). The Fprogeny of reciprocal intermatings between highlyinbred chicken line 6 (MD resistant) and line 7 (MD susceptible) were sampled for this study. RNA was isolated from three organ tissues (Bursa fabricius, thymus and spleen) and the relative expression levels of each allele were monitored by using pyrosequencing method. The results suggested that TPT1 and RBBP4 genes have the cis-acting regulatoryelements but these cis-acting elements do not play any role in conferring genetic resistance to MD.