Lpin1 was a gene with important effects on controlling lipid/energy metabolism in humans and mice. However, little was known about chicken Lpin1 gene. In the present study, two transcript isoforms of chicken Lpin1 were identified. Lpin1-a was predicted encoding one 902 amino acid protein, whereas Lpin1-d was predicted encoding one 918 amino acid protein with an insertion of 48-bp fragment from intron 12 of chicken Lpin1-a, and a conservative element was found to be located in intron 12 of chicken Lpin1-a genomic sequence. Ten variants were identified from chicken Lpin1-a coding sequence, and two missense mutations were predicted to affect the protein function of Lpin1. Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) analysis revealed that chicken total Lpin1, Lpin1-a and Lpin1-d were expressed in all analyzed tissues, and presented clear tissue expression differences. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR revealed that 30% energy restriction significantly elevated the total Lpin1 mRNA expression level in hepatic (P , 0.01) and adipose (P , 0.01) tissues of birds. Chicken total Lpin1 gene mRNA expression level presented a significantly inverse correlation with some traits including abdominal fat rate (P , 0.01), serum high-density lipoprotein (P , 0.05) and total cholesterol (P , 0.05), which would make a foundation for the further study on chicken Lpin1 gene function.