Crucial genes and pathways in chicken germ stem cell differentiation

The male germ cell differentiation is a subtle and complex regulation processes, currently its regulatory mechanism is not fully understood. In our experiment, we performed the first comprehensive genome wide analyses of the crucial genes in three kinds of crucial cells (ESCs, PGCs and SSCs) associated with the male germ cells differentiation. We identified thousands of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in this process andwe choosed 173 candidate genes involved in the differentiation and metabolic processes, like GAL9, AMH, PLK1, PSMD7 and so on. Further exploration found that the candidate genes express patterns were the same between in vitro induction experiments and transcriptome results. Our results clues to the mechanistic basis of male germ cell differentiation and provides an important reference for future studies. Gene expression in chicken germ stem cells was measured at different stages of development. Three independent experiments were performed at each stage (ESCs, PGCs and SSCs).