The broiler chicken as a signal of a human reconfigured biosphere

Bennett, Carys E.; Thomas, Richard M.; Williams, Mark; Zalasiewicz, Jan; Edgeworth, Matt; Miller, Holly; Coles, Benjamin; Foster, Alison; Burton, Emily; Marume, U.

doi:10.1098/rsos.180325

Cited by 128 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…There are an estimated 23 billion live chickens on the planet at any one time [1], outnumbering humans by over 3:1. As most of these are reared for food, the actual number of chickens produced per year is even higher, at almost 65 billion, leading some to speculate that the accumulation of chicken bones in the fossil record will be used by future archaeologists as a unique marker for the Anthropocene [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

et al. 2020

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Background: Chickens are a highly important source of protein for a large proportion of the human population. The caecal microbiota plays a crucial role in chicken nutrition through the production of short-chain fatty acids, nitrogen recycling, and amino acid production. In this study, we sequence DNA from caecal content samples taken from 24 chickens belonging to either a fast or a slower growing breed consuming either a vegetable-only diet or a diet containing fish meal. Results: We utilise 1.6 T of Illumina data to construct 469 draft metagenome-assembled bacterial genomes, including 460 novel strains, 283 novel species, and 42 novel genera. We compare our genomes to data from 9 European Union countries and show that these genomes are abundant within European chicken flocks. We also compare the abundance of our genomes, and the carbohydrate active enzymes they produce, between our chicken groups and demonstrate that there are both breed-and diet-specific microbiomes, as well as an overlapping core microbiome. Conclusions: This data will form the basis for future studies examining the composition and function of the chicken caecal microbiota.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

et al. 2020

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“…There are an estimated 23 billion live chickens on the planet at any one time (1), out-numbering humans by over 3:1. As most of these are reared for food, the actual number of chickens produced per year is even higher, at almost 65 billion, leading some to speculate that the accumulation of chicken bones in the fossil record will be used by future archaeologists as a unique marker for the Anthropocene (2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

Glendinning

Stewart

Pallen

et al. 2019

Preprint

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9Chickens are a highly important source of protein for a large proportion of the human population. The 10 caecal microbiota plays a crucial role in chicken nutrition through the production of short chain fatty acids, 11 nitrogen recycling and amino acid production. In this study we sequenced DNA from caecal contents 12 samples taken from 24 chickens belonging to either a fast or slower growing breed consuming either a 13 vegetable-only diet or a diet containing fish meal. We utilised 1.6T of Illumina data to construct 469 draft 14 metagenome-assembled bacterial genomes, including 460 novel strains, 283 novel species and 42 novel 15 genera. We compared our genomes to data from eight EU countries and show that these genomes are 16 abundant within European chicken flocks. We also compared the abundance of our genomes, and the 17 carbohydrate active enzymes they produce, between our chicken groups and demonstrate that there are 18 both breed-and diet-specific microbiomes, as well as an overlapping core microbiome. This data will form 19 the basis for future studies examining the composition and function of the chicken caecal microbiota. 20 21 Background: 22 157 Data availability 158 Paired-read fastq files have been submitted to the European Nucleotide Archive under project PRJEB33338. 159 MAG fasta files have been submitted to Edinburgh DataShare (https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/2584). 160

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“…Among birds, chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) are the most important source of protein for many societies all over the world. [1][2][3][4] Current ideas on when and how fowl domestication occurred continue to be revised. Traditionally, domestication of fowl has been hypothesized to have happened around 6000-5000 BCE.…”

Section: Chicken Breedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among birds, chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ) are the most important source of protein for many societies all over the world . Current ideas on when and how fowl domestication occurred continue to be revised.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological diversity of integumentary traits in fowl domestication: Insights from disparity analysis and embryonic development

Núñez-León

Aguirre-Fernández

Steiner

et al. 2019

Developmental Dynamics

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The domestication of the fowl resulted in a large diversity of integumental structures in chicken breeds. Several integumental traits have been investigated from a developmental genetics perspective. However, their distribution among breeds and their developmental morphology remain unexplored. We constructed a discrete trait‐breed matrix and conducted a disparity analysis to investigate the variation of these structures in chicken breeds; 20 integumental traits of 72 chicken breeds and the red junglefowl were assessed. The analyses resulted in slight groupings of breed types comparable to standard breed classification based on artificial selection and chicken type use. The red junglefowl groups together with bantams and European breeds. We provide new data on the red junglefowl and four chicken breeds, demonstrating where and when variation arises during embryonic development. We document variation in developmental timing of the egg tooth and feather formation, as well as other kinds of developmental patterning as in the anlagen of different type of combs. Changes in epithelial‐mesenchymal signaling interactions may drive the highly diverse integument in chickens. Experimental and comparative work has revealed that the cranial neural crest mesenchyme mediates its interactions with the overlying epithelium and is the likely source of patterning that generates diversity in integumental structures.

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The broiler chicken as a signal of a human reconfigured biosphere

Cited by 128 publications

References 62 publications

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

Morphological diversity of integumentary traits in fowl domestication: Insights from disparity analysis and embryonic development

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