Nutrigenomics in Animal Feeding: Digital Gene Expression Analysis in Poultry Fed Tenebrio molitor Larvae Meal

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of high levels of Tenebrio molitor dietary inclusion (15%) on molecular mechanisms that influence poultry health in a broiler chicken diet. The global gene expression of four tissues (breast, liver, jejunum, and caecum) was evaluated using the RNA-Seq approach. The analysis of differentially expressed genes suggested that the use of Tenebrio molitor leads to the overexpression of genes related to protein elongation required for tissue growth and development in the gut and liver. It would also appear to contain nutrients that reduce the expression of genes related to the immune system and inflammation of the mucosa. The dietary inclusion of Tenebrio molitor in poultry could also lead to a possible inactivation of the growth factor and a reduction of tissue free-radicals. No genes alterations have been detected in liver RNA expression that would discourage the use of larvae in feeding broilers.

RNAseq reveals modulation of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis in chicken liver according to genetic background, sex, and diet

“…This transcriptomic approach can accurately study tissue transcriptomes with high resolution and depth. Increasingly, the nutrigenomic approach is used to investigate the effect of diets on metabolic processes also in poultry (Soglia et al, 2022). A recent study of the liver transcriptome after folic acid supplementation in the diet of broiler chickens found that peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) signalling is the pathway most activated by the enriched diet (Zhang et al, 2021).…”