IDENTIFICATION OF A DIFFERENTIAL DISPLAY PRODUCT ASSOCIATED WITH APOPTOSIS IN CHICKEN THYMOCYTES

To further elucidate the cellular mechanisms that mediate programmed c ell death in avian immune cells, differential display analysis was emp loyed to identify differentially expressed genes in chicken thymocytes undergoing apoptosis. Primary cultures of thymocytes were treated wit h dexamethasone to activate apoptosis and RNA was isolated for differe ntial display analysis. A differential display product designated A1 ( 479 bp) was identified. This display product was subcloned and induced expression of the genes was confirmed by ribonuclease protection anal ysis, Nucleotide sequence analysis of A1 revealed a putative 82 amino acid open reading frame that demonstrated limited homology with Bad, a n apoptotic regulatory protein, Thus, A1 may represent the avian homol og of Bad. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.