Chicken cecal microRNAs in the response to Campylobacter jejuni inoculation by Solexa sequencing

Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is one of major foodborne pathogen that cause human diarrhea by consuming C. jejuni contaminated chicken products. MicroRNAs play an integral role in many different biological processes including bacteria and virus inoculation in chickens. In this study, we identified chicken miRNAs responding to C. jejuni inoculation through Solexa sequencing in the cecum. As a result, four miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed between inoculated and non-inoculated groups. There were 1,114 putative target genes regulated by those differentially expressed miRNAs predicted by miRanda, TargetScan, and miRTarget softwares. Functional analysis of those target genes showed that 113 gene ontology biological process terms and 14 pathways were significantly enriched. Hedgehog signaling pathway may contribute to chicken C. jejuni inoculation. MiR-155 played vital role in the C. jejuni inoculation. The result herein will lay the foundation for the further study of regulatory mechanism of chicken miRNAs in the response to C. jejuni inoculation.