Fig. 7.

RT-qPCR confirmation of DEGs contained within the gene interaction network associated with pituitary hormone production. Microarray (a - h, top graph) and RT-qPCR (a - h, bottom graph) data are shown for each gene on post-hatch weeks 1, 3, 5, and 7. For RT-qPCR data, levels of mRNA for each gene were normalized to levels of GAPDH mRNA. Values (mean + SEM; n = 4 birds per line) are expressed relative to the age and line with the highest expression level for each technique (set to 100% prior to log2-transformation for statistical analysis). The RT-qPCR data for GH (a, bottom), FSHβ (b, bottom), and LHβ (c, bottom) are also shown in Fig. 2. When the two-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant line-by-age interaction (P ≤ 0.05), the presence of an asterisk (*) denotes a significant difference between the lines at the indicated age (P ≤ 0.05). Significant main effects of line and/or age (P ≤ 0.05) are indicated at the top of each graph when the line-by-age interaction was not significant (P > 0.05)