Identification and characterization of genes that control fat deposition in chickens

Abstract

BackgroundFat deposits in chickens contribute significantly to meat quality attributes such as juiciness, flavor, taste and other organoleptic properties. The quantity of fat deposited increases faster and earlier in the fast-growing chickens than in slow-growing chickens. In this study, Affymetrix Genechip® Chicken Genome Arrays 32773 transcripts were used to compare gene expression profiles in liver and hypothalamus tissues of fast-growing and slow-growing chicken at 8 wk of age. Real-time RT-PCR was used to validate the differential expression of genes selected from the microarray analysis. The mRNA expression of the genes was further examined in fat tissues. The association of single nucleotide polymorphisms of four lipid-related genes with fat traits was examined in a F2 resource population.ResultsFour hundred genes in the liver tissues and 220 genes hypothalamus tissues, respectively, were identified to be differentially expressed in fast-growing chickens and slow-growing chickens. Expression levels of genes for lipid metabolism (SULT1B1, ACSBG2, PNPLA3, LPL, AOAH) carbohydrate metabolism (MGAT4B, XYLB, GBE1, PGM1, HKDC1)cholesttrol biosynthesis (FDPS, LSS, HMGCR, NSDHL, DHCR24, IDI1, ME1) HSD17B7 and other reaction or processes (CYP1A4, CYP1A1, AKR1B1, CYP4V2, DDO) were higher in the fast-growing White Recessive Rock chickens than in the slow-growing Xinghua chickens. On the other hand, expression levels of genes associated with multicellular organism development, immune response, DNA integration, melanin biosynthetic process, muscle organ development and oxidation-reduction (FRZB, DMD, FUT8, CYP2C45, DHRSX, and CYP2C18) and with glycol-metabolism (GCNT2, ELOVL 6, and FASN), were higher in the XH chickens than in the fast-growing chickens. RT-PCR validated high expression levels of nine out of 12 genes in fat tissues. The G1257069A and T1247123C of the ACSBG2 gene were significantly associated with abdominal fat weight. The G4928024A of the FASN gene were significantly associated with fat bandwidth, and abdominal fat percentage. The C4930169T of the FASN gene was associated with abdominal fat weight while the A59539099G of the ELOVL 6 was significantly associated with subcutaneous fat. The A8378815G of the DDT was associated with fat band width.ConclusionThe differences in fat deposition were reflected with differential gene expressions in fast and slow growing chickens.

Estrogen Abolishes the Repression Role of gga-miR-221-5p Targeting ELOVL6 and SQLE to Promote Lipid Synthesis in Chicken Liver

“…It was found that the ELOVL6 promoter region has a QTL polymorphism site that can regulate the composition of porcine fatty acid [37]. Studies in poultry have found that single nucleotide polymorphisms in the ELOVL6 gene are associated with the deposition of subcutaneous fat [38]. SQLE located on the endoplasmic reticulum is the first oxygenation step in the biosynthesis of sterols and is considered to be one of the key enzymes in this pathway, which has an important impact on the flux synthesis of cholesterol [39].…”

A short insertion mutation disrupts genesis of miR-16 and causes increased body weight in domesticated chicken

“…Another 8 birds from XH and WRR (n = 4 per population) were used to confirm miR-16 expression pattern. In our previous study, liver tissues from 3 indigenous XH and 3 commercial WRR chicken at about 7-weeks-old were used for mRNA microarray analysis31. QY and XH chicken are populations with similar growth performance, and thus used to represent populations with the same general growth characteristics and to contrast with fast-growing WRR.…”

“…After data normalization, significance was determined by ANOVA analysis and false-positive reduction ( p  < 0.01). mRNA expression was based on our previous microarray data31. The microarray dataset was deposited to Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) under accession number GSE80580.…”

Expression analyses of candidate genes related to meat quality traits in squabs from two breeds of meat‐type pigeon

“…In cattle, the gene expression abundances of LPL , as well as FASN , exhibited significant positive correlations with IMF content in the longissimus dorsi muscle (Jeong, Kwon, Im, Seo, & Baik, ). In chicken, the expression of LPL was up‐regulated in fast‐growing chickens than slow‐growing chickens (Claire D'Andre et al., ). Compared with the WK squabs, the expressions of LPL in both liver and breast muscle were consistently elevated in the SQ squabs, which indicated that the phenotypic differences in terms of IMF content between the two pigeon breeds may result from the significant up‐regulation of genes involved in the lipogenic process.…”