Sodium oligomannate (GV-971), an oligosaccharide drug approved in China for treating mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), was previously found to recondition the gut microbiota and limit altered peripheral Th1 immunity in AD transgenic mice. As a follow-up study, we here made advances by pinpointing a Lactobacillus murinus (L.m.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlike other chicken breeds, Xichuan Black Bone (XBB) chickens are an established breed in China with excellent production performance and unique characteristics, including black meat, beaks, skin, bones, and legs, and they produce blue-shelled eggs. The Tengchong Snow (TS) chicken breed has relatively lower growth performance than commercial breeds but is considered one of the main genetic treasures of black meat in China. To improve the production and meat quality traits of the TS chickens by hybridization, the current study aimed to investigate the growth performance, carcass indices, meat quality physical properties, and muscle fiber traits of fiber traits of F1 crosses of TS with XBB chickens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdding edible fungal polysaccharides to animal diets improves growth performance, meat quality, intestinal health, and immunity without adverse effects. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of polysaccharide (PCP, including PCP250, PCP500, PCP750, and PCP1000 mg/kg) on the growth performance, meat quality, and microbial composition of Arbor Acre (AA) broilers (total 180) by metabolomics and high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that adding PCP enhanced chicken meat tenderness, redness (*), and water retention and raised essential amino acids and flavor amino acids (such as umami and sweet amino acids) content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are autoimmune conditions that affect the central nervous system. The contribution of peripheral abnormalities to the disease's pathogenesis is not well understood.
Methods: To investigate this, we employed a multi-omics approach analyzing blood samples from 52 NMOSD patients and 46 healthy controls (HC).
Five polypeptides with a potential umami taste were isolated and purified from Yanjin black bone chicken. However, the flavor characteristics and umami mechanism have not been clarified. The umami properties of these five peptides were investigated in this work using a range of analytical techniques, computer simulation, and sensory evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development and characteristics of muscle fibers in broilers are critical determinants that influence their growth performance, as well as serve as essential prerequisites for the production of high-quality chicken meat. Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) is a crucial endogenous substance in animal creatine synthesis, and its utilization as a feed additive has been demonstrated the capabilities to enhance animal performance, optimize muscle yield, and augment carcass quality. The objective of this study was to investigate the regulation and molecular mechanism underlying muscle development in broilers at different levels of GAA via multiple omics analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although multiple chicken genomes have been assembled and annotated, the numbers of protein-coding genes in chicken genomes and their variation among breeds are still uncertain due to the low quality of these genome assemblies and limited resources used in their gene annotations. To fill these gaps, we recently assembled genomes of four indigenous chicken breeds with distinct traits at chromosome-level. In this study, we annotated genes in each of these assembled genomes using a combination of RNA-seq- and homology-based approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although many studies have been done to reveal artificial selection signatures in commercial and indigenous chickens, a limited number of genes have been linked to specific traits. To identify more trait-related artificial selection signatures and genes, we re-sequenced a total of 85 individuals of five indigenous chicken breeds with distinct traits from Yunnan Province, China.
Results: We found 30 million non-redundant single nucleotide variants and small indels (< 50 bp) in the indigenous chickens, of which 10 million were not seen in 60 broilers, 56 layers and 35 red jungle fowls (RJFs) that we compared with.
The aim of this study was to explore the molecular mechanisms through which different levels of GAA affect chicken muscle development by influencing miRNA expression, to lay a theoretical foundation for the identification of key functional small RNAs related to poultry muscle development, and to provide new insights into the regulatory mechanisms of GAA on muscle development and meat quality in broilers. It provides a new theoretical basis for using GAA as a feed additive to improve feed performance. Small RNA sequencing technology was utilized to obtain the expression profiles of miRNA in the broiler pectoral muscle fed with different levels of GAA (0 g/kg, 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany lines of evidence indicate that red jungle fowl (RJF) is the primary ancestor of domestic chickens. Although multiple versions of RJF (galgal2-galgal5 and GRCg6a) and commercial chickens (GRCg7b/w and Huxu) genomes have been assembled since 2004, no high-quality indigenous chicken genomes have been assembled, hampering the understanding of chicken domestication and evolution. To fill the gap, we sequenced the genomes of four indigenous chickens with distinct morphological traits in southwest China, using a combination of short, long and Hi-C reads.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMajor depressive disorder (MDD) involves systemic changes in peripheral blood and gut microbiota, but the current understanding is incomplete. Herein, we conducted a multi-omics analysis of fecal and blood samples obtained from an observational cohort including MDD patients (n = 99) and healthy control (HC, n = 50). 16S rRNA sequencing of gut microbiota showed structural alterations in MDD, as characterized by increased Enterococcus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are four species in the Crossoptilon genus inhibiting at from very low to very high altitudes across China, and they are in varying levels of danger of extinction. To better understand the genetic basis of adaptation to high altitudes and genetic changes due to bottleneck, we assembled the genome (~1.02 Gb) of a white eared pheasant (WT) (Crossoptilon crossoptilon) inhibiting at high altitudes (3,000~7,000 m) in northwest of Yunnan province, China, using a combination of Illumina short reads, PacBio long reads and Hi-C reads, with a contig N50 of 19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRheumatoid arthritis (RA) involves several classes of pathogenic autoantibodies, some of which react with type-II collagen (COL2) in articular cartilage. We previously described a subset of COL2 antibodies targeting the F4 epitope (ERGLKGHRGFT) that could be regulatory. Here, using phage display, we developed recombinant antibodies against this epitope and examined the underlying mechanism of action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSkeletal disorder is of concern to the poultry 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMatrix metalloproteinases are a group of proteases involved in the regulation of ovarian follicular development and ovulation. Among the different MMPs, MMP13 is known to play an important role in reproduction. Therefore, this study aimed to screen the molecular genetic markers of the MMP13 gene that affect the egg-laying performance of Chahua chickens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTengchong Snow chickens are one of the most precious, black-boned chickens in Yunnan province and usually produce black meat. However, we found a small number of white meat traits in the chicken population during feeding. In order to determine the pattern of melanin deposition and the molecular mechanism of formation in the Tengchong Snow chicken, we measured the luminance value (L value) and melanin content in the skin of black meat chickens (Bc) and white meat chickens (Wc) using a color colorimeter, ELISA kit, and enzyme marker.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To identify the arthritogenic B cell epitopes of glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) and their association with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods: IgG response towards a library of GPI peptides in patients with early RA, pre-symptomatic individuals and population controls, as well as in mice, were tested by bead-based multiplex immunoassays and ELISA. Monoclonal IgG were generated, and the binding specificity and affinity were determined by ELISA, gel size exclusion chromatography, surface plasma resonance and X-ray crystallography.
Sexual maturation provides economically important traits in poultry production. Research on the initiation mechanism of sexual maturity is of great significance for breeding high-yield laying hens. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough elevated levels of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are a hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the in vivo functions of these antibodies remain unclear. Here, we have expressed monoclonal ACPAs derived from patients with RA, and analyzed their functions in mice, as well as their specificities. None of the ACPAs showed arthritogenicity nor induced pain-associated behavior in mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEgg production is a vital biological and economic trait for poultry breeding. The 'hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis' determines the egg production, which affects the layer hens industry income. At the organism level, the HPO axis is influenced by the factors related to metabolic and nutritional status, environment, and genetics, whereas at the cellular and molecular levels, the HPO axis is influenced by the factors related to endocrine and metabolic regulation, cytokines, key genes, signaling pathways, post-transcriptional processing, and epigenetic modifications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeat quality traits are an important economic trait and remain a major argument, from the producer to the consumer. However, there are a few candidate genes and pathways of chicken meat quality traits that were reported for chicken molecular breeding. The purpose of the present study is to identify the candidate genes and pathways associated with meat quality underlying variations in meat quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study used acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, and pepsin extract acid-soluble collagen (ASC), alkali-soluble collagen (ALSC), and pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC) from the bones of spent-hens, and the effects of three extraction methods on the characteristics, processing properties, antioxidant properties and acceptability of chicken bone collagen were compared. The results showed that the extraction rates of ASC, ALSC and PSC extracted from bones of spent-hens were 3.39%, 2.
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