Background: Puberty onset signifies the beginning of sexual maturation and reproductive phase in poultry indeed, and plays an essential role in genetics and breeding. Studying gonadal development is one of the important approaches to exploring the genetic mechanism of puberty onset.
Result: In our study, the phenotype data of the testes and ovaries of the 120-day-old Nonghua duck showed a large coefficient of variation, indicating that their gonads were in different developmental states.
Bone plays a crucial role in poultry's health and production. However, during the selection and cage farming, there has been a decline in bone quality. As the development of breeding theory, researchers find that it's possible to enhance bone quality through selective breeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndogenous retroviruses (ERV) are viral genomes integrated into the host genome and can be stably inherited. Although ERV sequences have been reported in some avian species' genome, the duck endogenous retroviruses (DERV) genome has yet to be quantified. This study aimed to identify ERV sequences and characterize genes near ERVs in the duck genome by utilizing LTRhavest and LTRdigest tools to forecast the duck genome and analyze the distribution of ERV copies.
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