Identification of biomarkers associated with the feed efficiency by metabolomics profiling: results from the broiler lines divergent for high or low abdominal fat content

作者：Zhiyong Su, Xue Bai, Haoyu Wang, Shouzhi Wang, Chong Chen, Fan Xiao, Huaishun Guo, Haihe Gao, Li Leng, Hui Li · 发表于：Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology/Journal of animal science and biotechnology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1186/s40104-022-00775-3 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Animal Nutrition and Physiology、Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies、Meat and Animal Product Quality

Abstract Background Improving feed efficiency (FE) is one of the main objectives in broiler breeding. It is difficult to directly measure FE traits, and breeders hence have been trying to identify biomarkers for the indirect selection and improvement of FE traits. Metabolome is the "bridge" between genome and phenome. The metabolites may potentially account for more of the phenotypic variation and can suitably serve as biomarkers for selecting FE traits. This study aimed to identify plasma metabolite markers for selecting high-FE broilers. A total of 441 birds from Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content were used to analyze plasma metabolome and estimate the genetic parameters of differentially expressed metabolites. Results The results identified 124 differentially expressed plasma metabolites ( P < 0.05) between the lean line (high-FE birds) and the fat line (low-FE birds). Among these differentially expressed plasma metabolites, 44 were found to have higher positive or negative genetic correlations with FE traits (| r g | ≥ 0.30). Of these 44 metabolites, 14 were found to display moderate to high heritability estimates ( h 2 ≥ 0.20). However, among the 14 metabolites, 4 metabolites whose physiological functions have not been reported were excluded. Ultimately, 10 metabolites were suggested to serve as the potential biomarkers for breeding the high-FE broilers. Based on the physiological functions of these metabolit...