Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (5): 1915-1926.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.05.014

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Study of the Alteration of Wooden Breast Histological and Molecular Regulatory Pathways in Chickens

BAI Lu1, WANG Mengjie1, MA Xiaochun1, HE Zhengxiao1, KONG Fuli1, LIU Dawei2, YING Fan2, ZHU Dan2, ZHAO Guiping1, WEN Jie1, LIU Ranran1*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Nutrition and Feeding, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;
    2. Foshan Gaoming Xinguang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co. Ltd., Guangdong 528500, China
  • Received:2022-11-07 Online:2023-05-23 Published:2023-05-20

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the quantitative differences in tissue morphology and molecular regulatory pathways alterations between the normal individuals and myopathies including wooden breast (WB) and white striping (WS) occur separately and concomitantly of chicken pectoralis major. The research based on the 42-day-old paternal line of the fast growing white feather broiler terminal. According to the apparent judgment criteria of wooden breast and white striping, 4 groups of pectoral muscle tissue samples were screened. The 4 groups were normal group, WB group, WS group, WB accompanied by WS group, respectively. Statistics and analysis of 61 individual myofiber tissue morphological indicators were conducted. According to the apparent judgment score and histological statistics, tissue samples were selected from the normal group and the wooden breast group for mRNA sequencing. The histological results showed that the area, diameter and endomysial thickness of myofibers in the WB group were significantly higher than those in the other 3 groups (P <0.05), while the density of myofibers in the WB group was significantly lower than that in the WS and WS+WB groups (P <0.05). Transcriptome analysis screened out 1 201 upregulated expression difference genes in the WB group compared with the normal group, and there was no significant downregulated expression difference gene. KEGG results showed that the upregulation genes were mainly enriched in connective tissue proliferation related pathways including gap junctions, focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction and collagen fibril organization. Real-time PCR verification of genes related to processes such as connective tissue proliferation were screened from the enrichment pathways. The result showed that the expression trend of differentially expressed gene IGF1R, NOS2, ITGB2, ITGA11, FMOD and others were consistent with the transcriptome results between wooden breast and normal groups. In summary, this study report that the average endomysial thickness of normal individual is more than 75% higher than wooden breast of pectoral muscle, which is likely to be related to excessive proliferation of connective tissue. ITGA11 and FMOD can be used as candidate genes for myopathies pectoral muscle for later in-depth research.

Key words: broiler chicken, wooden breast, white striping, histological characteristics, transcriptome

CLC Number: