Transcriptomics reveals the molecular regulation of Chinese medicine formula on improving bone quality in broiler

Authors：Zhao, Jingying; Duan, Xiaohua; Yan, Shixiong; Liu, Yong; Wang, Kun; Hu, Mei; Chai, Qian; Liu, Lixian; Ge, Changrong; Jia, Junjing; Dou, Tengfei^*

Source：Poultry Science, 2023, 102(11): 103044.

DOI：10.1016/j.psj.2023.103044

• Chinese medicine formula
• broiler
• bone biomechanical properties
• bone microstructure
• RNA-seq

Skeletal disorder is of concern to the poul-try industry as it affects animal welfare and production performance. Traditional Chinese medicine could improve bone quality and reduce the incidence of bone disease, but the molecular regulation of Chinese medicine formula (CMF) on improving bone quality in broilers is still unclear. This study was performed to research the effects of CMF on skeletal performance of Cobb broilers and reveal the molecular regulation. A total of 120 one-day-old Cobb broilers were randomly allocated into 4 equal groups of 30 chickens, with 5 replicates and 6 chick-ens in each replicate. The control (CON) group was fed a diet without CMF, while the CMF1, CMF2, and CMF3 groups were supplemented with different CMF at 6,000 mg/kg diet, respectively. The broilers were raised to 60 d of age, then bone tissues were collected for bio-mechanical properties, micro-CT detection and transcrip-tomic sequencing analysis. The results showed that CMF3 improved the biomechanical properties of broiler tibia, via increasing the elastic modulus (P < 0.05), yield strength (P > 0.05), maximum stress (P < 0.05) and frac-ture stress (P < 0.05) of the tibia. Micro-CT analysis indi-cated that CMF3 increased the bone mineral density (BMD), bone volume/total volume (BV/TV), bone surface density (BS/TV), trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), and decreased the trabec-ular separation (Tb.Sp) of femur cancellous bone (P < 0.05). RNA-seq analysis revealed 2,177 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (|log2FoldChange| >= 1, FDR < 0.05) between the CMF3 group and CON group. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) analysis showed 13 pathways mostly associated with bone growth and development and bone metabolism, and we identified 39 bone-related DEGs. This study suggests that CMF3 could improve bone strength and bone micro-structure of broilers, and showed a positive effect on bone performance. Our research could provide a theoretical ref-erence for the development of pollution-free feed additives to improve the skeletal performance of broilers, which could help promote healthy farming of chickens.

• Institution
  云南大学