Understanding the differences in microbial communities shaped by different food selective forces, especially during early post-hatch period, is critical to gain insight into how to select, evaluate, and improve antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) alternatives in food animals. As a model system, commercial diet-administered OAs (DOAs) and wateradministered OAs (WOAs) were used separately or in combination as Virginiamycin alternatives for broiler feeding during two growth phases: 1-21 days and 22-42 days. Among these three OA-treated groups, the DOA group was most similar to the AGP group in the composition and the proportion of these dominant bacterial communities at the level of phylum, family, and genus in cecal chyme of broilers. Sub-therapeutic Virginiamycin decreased the richness, homogenization, and species diversity of gut microbiota, especially in the early growth stage from days 1 to 21. Among these three OA supplementation schemes, it was clear that DOA supplementation was more likely to increase or maintain the richness, homogenization, species diversity, and predicted gene functions of cecal microbiota in treated broilers than either no supplementation or AGP supplementation during two experimental stages. The interference of DOA treatment with early colonization of probiotics and pathogens in broiler cecum was the most similar to AGP treatment, and OAs did not cause the occurrence of Virginiamycin-resistant strains of Enterococcus at the end of this trial. In terms of the predicted gene functions of the microbiota, AGP and DOA treatments provided a similar selective force for microbial metabolism functions in the cecum of broiler chickens, especially in the early growth stage. Noticeably, the relative abundance of some microbiome that was modified by Virginiamycin or DOA supplementation was significantly correlated with body weight

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Adipocytes are derived from pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells through adipogenesis. Pre-adipocyte differentiation in poultry greatly influences fat deposition and meat quality. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have an important function in cancer and some differentiation processes. Herein, high-throughput transcriptome sequencing was used to detect circRNAs present in cherry valley duck pre-adipocyte and adipocyte differentiation over 3 days. We identified 9,311 circRNAs and 141 differentially expressed circRNAs. Sequencing results were verified through qRT-PCR using seven randomly selected circRNAs, and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks were exhibited by ten important circRNAs in duck adipocyte differentiation. circRNA plexin A1 (circ-PLXNA1) was detected in duck adipocytes and mainly expressed in adipose, leg muscle and liver. Inhibition of circ-PLXNA1 limited the differentiation of duck adipocyte. There were four corresponding miRNAs for circ-PLXNA1 and 313 target genes for those miRNAs. CeRNA“circ-PLXNA1/miR-214/CTNNB1 axis” was focused and verified by a dual-luciferase reporter experiment. After co-transfection of cells with si-circ-PLXNA1 and miR-214 mimics, the expression level of CTNNB1 was down-regulated, triglyceride content and the adipogenic capacity of preadipocytes decreased. While there were no significant change after si-CTNNB1 transfection. All these results provide further insight into the circRNAs, especially for circ-PLXNA1 in duck adipocyte differentiation.

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