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The effective protection and utilization of poultry resources depend on an accurate understanding of the genetic diversity and population structure. The breeding of the specialized poultry lineage “Yufen 1”, with its defined characteristics, was approved by the China Poultry Genetic Resource Committee in 2015. Thus, to investigate the relationship between the progenitor H line and other poultry breeds, the genetic diversity and population structure of “Yufen 1” H line (YF) were investigated and compared with those of 2 commercial chicken breeds, the ancestor breed Red Jungle Fowls, and 11 Chinese indigenous chicken breeds based on a whole-genome resequencing approach using 8,112,424 SNPs. The genetic diversity of YF was low, and the rate of linkage disequilibrium decay was significantly slower than that of the other Chinese indigenous breeds. In addition, it was shown that the YF population was strongly selected during intensive breeding and that genetic resources have been seriously threatened, which highlights the need to establish a systematic conservation strategy as well as utilization techniques to maintain genetic diversity within YF. Moreover, a principal component analysis, a neighbor-joining tree analysis, a structure analysis, and genetic differentiation indices indicated that YF harbors a distinctive genetic resource with a unique genetic structure separate from that of Chinese indigenous breeds at the genome level. The findings provide a valuable resource and the theoretical basis for the further conservation and utilization of YF.

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Background Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is the major evaluating indicator in chicken meat quality. We previously found that miR-128-3p was differentially expressed in chicken intramuscular adipocyte at different periods. However, little is known about miR-128-3p associated with intramuscular adipocyte differentiation. The purpose of this present study was to investigate the biological functions and regulatory mechanism of miR-128-3p in chicken intramuscular adipogenesis. Results A series of assay results confirmed that miR-128-3p could promote the proliferation of intramuscular adipocytes and inhibit cell differentiation. A total of 223 and 1,050 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the mimic treatment group and inhibitor treatment group compared with the control group, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that DEGs involved in lipid metabolism related processes, such as MAPK signaling pathway and TGF-β signaling pathway. Furthermore, target genes prediction analysis showed that miR-128-3p can target multiple genes from DEGs, such as FDPS, GGT5, TMEM37, and ASL2. Luciferase assay showed that the miR-128-3p targeted to the 3’ UTR of FDPS. Subsequent functional assays demonstrated that miR-128-3p acted as an inhibitor of intramuscular adipocyte differentiation by targeting FDPS. Conclusion This study found that miR-128-3p inhibited chicken intramuscular adipocytes differentiation by down regulating FDPS. Our findings provided a theoretical basis for the study of lipid metabolism, and also provided a potential target for molecular breeding to improve meat quality.