The quality attributes of thigh meat from a certified meat-type commercial Korean native chicken (Woorimatdag T M, WM) and a commercial broiler (Ross, CB) raised under the same environmental conditions, were compared. One-d-old, mixedsex WM (200), and 200 broilers (Ross, CB) each were randomly assigned to floor pens (20 chickens per pen). The production stages (I, II, and III) were selected based on similar live weight. The crude fat contents of WM thigh meat were lower than those of CB. WM thigh meat contained higher stearic and arachidonic acid contents but lower palmitoleic and oleic acid contents compared to those of CB. The thigh meat color CIE L*-and CIE b*-values of WM were lower, but inosine-5'-monophosphate content was higher in WM than CB in whole production stages. WM thigh meat showed higher collagen content, hardness, springiness, gumminess, and chewiness than CB. In sensory evaluation, odor, taste, and overall acceptance were higher while color was lower in WM. Based on these results, it can be concluded that even if commercial broilers are raised under the same environmental conditions as WM, the unique quality attributes of WM thigh meat are distinctively unique.

In order to evaluate the genetic diversity and discrimination among five Korean native chicken lines, a total of 86 individuals were genotyped using 150 microsatellite (MS) markers, and 15 highly polymorphic MS markers were selected. Based on the highest value of the number of alleles, the expected heterozygosity (He) and polymorphic information content (PIC) for the selected markers ranged from 6 to 12, 0.466 to 0.852, 0.709 to 0.882 and 0.648 to 0.865, respectively. Using these markers, the calculated genetic distance (Fst), the heterozygote deficit among chicken lines (Fit) and the heterozygote deficit within chicken line (Fis) values ranged from 0.0309 to 0.2473, 0.0013 to 0.4513 and −0.1002 to 0.271, respectively. The expected probability of identity values in random individuals (PI), random half-sib (PIhalf-sibs) and random sibs (PIsibs) were estimated at 7.98×10−29, 2.88×10−20 and 1.25×10−08, respectively, indicating that these markers can be used for traceability systems in Korean native chickens. The unrooted phylogenetic neighbor-joining (NJ) tree was constructed using 15 MS markers that clearly differentiated among the five native chicken lines. Also, the structure was estimated by the individual clustering with the K value of 5. The selected 15 MS markers were found to be useful for the conservation, breeding plan, and traceability system in Korean native chickens.

The identification of the differential expression of genes in the ovaries of egg-laying and prelaying Zi geese is required to improve the laying performance of the geese. In the present study, suppression subtractive hybridization and reverse dot-blot were employed to identify such genes, using the ovary as a model. Furthermore, expression profiling of estrogen receptor 1, estrogen receptor 2, follicle stimulating hormone receptor, prolactin receptor, ferritin H chain, and ovary differentially expressed unknown gene 08 in ovaries from geese was performed by quantitative real-time PCR. Total RNA from the ovaries of laying and prelaying Zi geese was pooled and the mRNA was isolated. The cDNA that was reverse-transcribed from the ovarian mRNA of the prelaying geese was subtracted from the cDNA isolated from the laying geese. Four hundred sixty-five clones containing putative differentially expressed gene fragments were further identified by reverse dot-blot. Ninety-seven clones were subjected to sequencing and further analysis. Sequence analysis showed that the expression of 18 known (including a mitochondrial gene) and 8 unknown gene fragments was higher in the ovaries of laying geese compared with prelaying geese. Seventeen of the known genes encode proteins that belong to groups involved with binding, catalytic activity, enzyme regulatory activity, signal transducer activity, structural molecule, and transporter activity. The results of the quantitative real-time PCR showed that the expression of estrogen receptor 1, estrogen receptor 2, follicle stimulating hormone receptor, prolactin receptor, ferritin H chain, and ovary differentially expressed unknown gene 08 was higher in the ovaries of the laying geese than in those of the prelaying geese (P<0.05). These differentially expressed genes may be relevant to the progression of prelaying geese to the egg-laying stage. Further study is required to elucidate the molecular mechanism that controls egg-laying in geese, to improve the productivity of laying geese.

This study was carried out to investigate the growth performance and the carcass ratio of meat-type Korean Native Ducks. Four hundred twenty Korean Native Ducks' chicks were selected and divided into four treatments (7 replications/treatment, 15 birds/replication) by strains (A and B) and gender(male and female) with 2×2 fractal factors. There was no significant difference between A and B on the body weight at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks old (P>0.05). However, body weight of female was higher at 2 weeks old than male while that of male was higher at the 8 weeks old (P<0.01). Daily feed intake of male was higher compared to female during 6～8 weeks (P<0.05). On weekly body weight gain, there was no significant difference between strains, but gained body weight of male was higher until 2 weeks old while that of female was higher during 6～8 weeks (P<0.01). On the live body weight and carcass weight by strains and genders, B strain was higher than A strains at the 8 weeks of age (P<0.01). Carcass yield was the highest at 8 weeks of age in both strains (P<0.05). These results may provided the basic data on growth performance and carcass ratio of meat-type Korean Native Ducks.

The Korean native chickens (Woorimotdak™, KNC) and commercial broilers (Ross, CB) show obvious differences in meat flavor after cooking. To understand the contribution of protein and peptide for meat flavor, 2-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry was performed. A total of 16 protein spots were differentially expressed in the breast and thigh meat between the two breeds. A total of seven protein spots were represented by different levels between KNC and CB for breast meat. Among them three protein spots (TU39149, TU40162 and TU39598) showed increases in their expressions in KNC while other four protein spots (BU40125, BU40119, BU40029 and BU39904) showed increases in CB. All nine protein spots that were represented by different levels between KNC and CB for thigh meat showed increases in their expression in KNC. Phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM 1), myosin heavy chain (MyHC), heat shock protein B1 (HSP27), cytochrome c reductase (Enzyme Q), Glyoxylase 1, DNA methyltransferase 3B (DNA MTase 3) were identified as the main protein spots by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. These results can provide valuable basic information for understanding the molecular mechanism responsible for breed specific differences in meat quality, especially the meat flavour.