Transgenerational epigenetic effects on innate immunity in broilers: An underestimated field to be explored?

Abstract

Transgenerational epigenetics is becoming more and more important for understanding the variation of physiological responses of individuals to the environment and the inheritance of these responses based on all mechanisms other than the actual DNA nucleotide sequence. Transgenerational epigenetics is the phenomenon that the information of the environment of (usually) a female animal is translated into memory-like responses preparing the offspring. As a consequence, individuals of the next generation may show different phenotypic traits depending whether their mothers were kept under different environmental conditions. This may result in either positive or negative effects on the next-generation individuals, which is different from individuals from mothers that have been kept in a different environment. Transgenerational epigenetic effects have been proposed and indicated for specific immune (T cell and antibody) responses (especially in mammals, but also in birds) and innate immunity (nonvertebrates), but surprisingly very little is known of transgenerational effects on innate immunity in chickens. Given the short lifespan of the chicken and therefore the likely dependence of chicken on innate immune mechanisms, more attention should be given to this arm of immunity and mechanisms of inheritance including transgenerational effects that can be initiated in the breeder generation. In addition, it is becoming evident that innate immunity also underlies metabolic disorders in broilers. In the current paper, we will argue that although very little is known of transgenerational effects of innate immunity in poultry, more attention should be given to this type of study. We will illustrate examples of transgenerational epigenetics, and finally propose strategies that should reveal the presence of transgenerational epigenetic effects on innate immunity in chickens and strategies to modulate breeder birds such that these effects positively affect innate immunity of broilers. It is suggested that a mismatch between breeder environment and broiler environment may account for unwanted effects of innate immunity in the broiler.

miRNA and piRNA expression profiles of breeder cock testes detected by next‐generation sequencing

“…As an important breeding animal, one broiler breeder hen produces approximately 100 broilers per year (Berghof et al., ). Furthermore, one breeder cock should mate with at least 8–10 breeder hens, which means that one breeder cock produces approximately 1,000 broilers per year.…”

Transgenerational epigenetic variance for body weight in meat quails

“…Studies have shown that maternal nutrition can influence the growth and carcass traits of the progeny in chicken (An, Liu, Guo, & Sun, ; Callini & Sirri, ; Moraes et al., ). In birds, the maternal nutrition can directly affect offspring performance through incorporation of nutrients into the egg or triggering epigenetic modifications that regulate muscle progenitor cells (Berghof et al., ; Moraes et al., ). Studies have reported the existence of epigenetic effects in birds, and even indicate the possibility of epigenetic inheritance, although few studies evaluate the DNA methylation or the histone modification (Berghof et al., ; Feeney et al., ; Gao et al., ; Li et al., ).…”

“…Relevant researches on poultry epigenetics (Berghof, Parmentier, & Lammers, ; Feeney, Nilsson, & Skinner, ; Frésard et al., ; Gao et al., ; Leurox et al., ; Li, Guo, Zhang, Gao, & Guo, ; Li et al., ) revealed that epigenetic modifications may occur from the first stage of egg, when the mother provides an environmental signature through the egg content (Frésard et al., ). However, studies approaching the transgenerational epigenetic variance estimation (Jablonka, ; Jablonka & Raz, ; Lopes, Bastiaansen, Janss, Knol, & Bovenhuis, ; Varona et al., ) for economically important traits are still scarce in the literature.…”

Retrospectieve analyse van standaard vastgelegde data in de vleeskuikenproductieketen

“…Volgens Berghof et al (2013) Ook was er een effect van het ruw eiwitgehalte: vleeskuikens van moederdieren met gemiddeld of hoog ruw eiwitgehalte in het voer hadden de hoogste voeropname tussen 18 en 27 dagen leeftijd, en mannelijke vleeskuikens van moederdieren gevoerd met het laag eiwitniveau hadden het hoogste percentage borstvlees (van Emous, et al, 2015b).…”