Transcriptome profile analysis of leg muscle tissues between slow- and fast-growing chickens

Abstract

Chicken is widely favored by consumers because of some unique features. The leg muscles occupy an important position in the market. However, the specific mechanism for regulating muscle growth speed is not clear. In this experiment, we used Jinghai yellow chickens with different body weights at 300 days as research subjects. The chickens were divided into fast- and slow-growing groups, and we collected leg muscles after slaughtering for use in RNA-seq. After comparing the two groups, 87 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified (fold change ≥ 2 and FDR < 0.05). The fast-growing group had 42 up-regulated genes and 45 down-regulated genes among these DEGs compared to the slow-growing group. Six items were significantly enriched in the biological process: embryo development ending in birth or egg hatching, chordate embryonic development, embryonic skeletal system development, and embryo development as well as responses to ketones and the sulfur compound biosynthetic process. Two significantly enriched pathways were found in the KEGG pathway analysis (P-value < 0.05): the insulin signaling pathway and the adipocytokine signaling pathway. This study provides a theoretical basis for the molecular mechanism of chicken growth and for improving the production of Jinghai yellow chicken.

Feed Restriction Induced Changes in Behavior, Corticosterone, and Microbial Programming in Slow- and Fast-Growing Chicken Breeds

“…However, in recent decades, considerable and intentional artificial selection has accelerated the rate of domestication to develop specialty poultry for specific requirements, especially with respect to fast-growing broiler breeds (which obtain sufficient body weight for the market at approximately 5 to 7 weeks). In response to artificial selection, and changes to nutritional and other management regimes, slow- and fast-growing chicken breeds have undergone a number of changes with regard to their genetic background [ 3 , 4 ], growth performance [ 5 ], meat quality [ 6 ], as well as hormone secretion [ 7 ] and adaptive responses [ 8 ]. Thus, it is assumed that the stress response is also different between the slow- and fast-growing broiler breed.…”

Transcriptome Analysis of Embryonic Muscle Development in Chengkou Mountain Chicken

“…RNA-seq technology proved helpful in revealing the essential genes and pathways associated with muscle development. In previous experiments, different growth rate chicken (Jinghai Yellow Chicken) muscle was used to analyze the expression difference of genes about muscle development, which revealed the regulation mechanism of the growth chickens [12,13].…”

Effective MSTN Gene Knockout by AdV-Delivered CRISPR/Cas9 in Postnatal Chick Leg Muscle

“…Muscle growth and development are regulated by genes, biological processes and signal pathways [35,36]; therefore, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are a hot topic of interest. In the present research, transcriptome sequencing was used to analyze the differentially expressed genes between MSTN knock-out (KO) muscles and wild-type (WT) muscles.…”