Version 1
: Received: 18 June 2019 / Approved: 20 June 2019 / Online: 20 June 2019 (08:08:07 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 16 August 2019 / Approved: 18 August 2019 / Online: 18 August 2019 (02:48:50 CEST)
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes2019, 10, 746.
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes 2019, 10, 746.
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes2019, 10, 746.
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes 2019, 10, 746.
Abstract
Wooden breast is a muscle disorder affecting modern commercial broiler chickens that causes a palpably firm pectoralis major muscle and severe reduction in meat quality. Most studies have focused on advanced stages of wooden breast apparent at market age, resulting in limited insights into the etiology and early pathogenesis of the myopathy. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify early molecular signals in the wooden breast transcriptional cascade by performing gene expression analysis on the pectoralis major muscle of two-week-old birds that may later exhibit the wooden breast phenotype by market age at 7 weeks. Biopsy samples of the left pectoralis major muscle were collected from a subset of 101 birds randomly selected from a total of 302 birds at 14 days of age, after which all birds were raised to 7 weeks of age for scoring of wooden breast. RNA sequencing was performed on 5 unaffected and 8 affected female chicken samples, selected based on wooden breast scores (0 to 4) assigned at necropsy where affected birds had scores of 2 or 3 (mildly or moderately affected) while unaffected birds had scores of 0 (no apparent gross lesions). Differential expression analysis identified 60 genes found to be significant at an FDR-adjusted p value of 0.05. Of these, 26 were previously demonstrated to exhibit altered expression or genetic polymorphisms related to glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus in mammals. Additionally, 9 genes have functions directly related to lipid metabolism and 11 genes are associated with adiposity traits such as intramuscular fat and body mass index. This study suggests that wooden breast disease is first and foremost a metabolic disorder characterized primarily by ectopic lipid accumulation in the pectoralis major.
Keywords
wooden breast; broilers; myopathy; breast muscle
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
The peer-reviewed version of this article published in Genes:
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes 2019, 10, 746.
Commenter:
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Lake, J.A.; Papah, M.B.; Abasht, B. Increased Expression of Lipid Metabolism Genes in Early Stages of Wooden Breast Links Myopathy of Broilers to Metabolic Syndrome in Humans. Genes 2019, 10, 746.