Metabolite and transcriptome analyses revealed the modulation of fructo-oligosaccharide on ileum metabolism of Taiping chickens.

AIM: The metabolic markers and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) were screened, and the response of FOS to the ileum metabolic pathway of Taiping chickens was analysed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Prebiotic are widely used in agricultural breeding for care and maintenance of animal health, especially FOS. Metabonomics evaluation of ileum of Taiping chicken ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadruple time of-flight high-sensitivity mass spectrometry showed that 93 differentially altered metabolites were identified and divided into eight categories, of which organic acids and derivatives was the most important one. Transcriptomic analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in drug metabolism-cytochrome p450, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome p450, retinol metabolism and fat digestion and absorption. Integrated analysis of metabolite profiles and gene expression revealed that the significantly up-regulated GSTT1 was significantly correlated with most of the different lipid metabolites, suggesting that GSTT1 may play an important role in FOS regulation of lipid metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that supplementation of FOS can have a positive effect on gut metabolites, which may contribute to the overall health with indigenous chickens. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Insight into the responses of intestinal prebiotics of Taiping chicken is helpful to understand the role of prebiotics in maintaining intestinal microflora balance and improving immune response and productivity of poultry from the molecular and metabolic levels.

Response of the ileum transcriptome to fructo-oligosaccharides in Taiping chickens.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) supplementation intake of Taiping chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) and its stimulating effects on ileum. 120 healthy chickens were randomly divided into two groups; control group (CT) and fructo-oligosaccharides group (FOS). At the 60th day of age, ileum mucosa of three chickens per group were collected and performed transcriptome profiling of Taiping chicken ileum mucosa using the Hiseq™ 2500 sequencing platform. Compared with CT group, 50 genes were differentially expressed in the FOS group. Ten of the differently expressed genes were further validated by RT-qPCR. In addition, gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes analyses revealed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched to drug metabolism-cytochrome P450, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, retinol metabolism, fat digestion and absorption, herpes simplex infection and valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis. The results of this study provided the help to our understanding application of fructo-oligosaccharides in indigenous chicken production and provide a theoretical basis for the genetic development of indigenous chickens.

RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis of ileum in Taiping chicken supplemented with the dietary probiotic.

Taiping chicken is indigenous chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus), which was one of China's excellent poultry species. As the problems caused by the overuse of antibiotics become more and more concern, people begin to look for ways to replace them. Among them, probiotics and their preparations are the research hotspot to replace antibiotics. Probiotics can promote the absorption of nutrients, improve the ratio of meat to meat, resist and prevent diseases, and improve the intestinal tissue morphology. Here, we performed transcriptome profiling of Taiping chicken ileum which was given probiotics by using the Hiseq™ 2500 sequencing platform. A total of 18 genes were differentially expressed in the ileum under control group and probiotics group. Thirteen genes were upregulated with a range of fold change from 1.02 to 8.61, and 5 were downregulated with a range of fold change from - 1.06 to - 2.29. Ten of the differently expressed genes were further validated by qRT-PCR. In addition, Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses revealed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched to bile secretion, alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, ether lipid metabolism, and arachidonic acid metabolism. This study will help us to understand the role of probiotics in indigenous chicken production and provide theoretical basis for the genetic development of indigenous chickens.