Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste, Guarapuava, PR, 85040-080, Brazil.
Embrapa Suínos e Aves, Concórdia, SC, 89715-899, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 9;11(1):17965. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97306-3.
Locomotor problems are among one of the main concerns in the current poultry industry, causing major economic losses and affecting animal welfare. The most common bone anomalies in the femur are dyschondroplasia, femoral head separation (FHS), and bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), also known as femoral head necrosis (FHN). The present study aimed to identify differentially expressed (DE) genes in the articular cartilage (AC) of normal and FHS-affected broilers by RNA-Seq analysis. In the transcriptome analysis, 12,169 genes were expressed in the femur AC. Of those, 107 genes were DE (FDR < 0.05) between normal and affected chickens, of which 9 were downregulated and 98 were upregulated in the affected broilers. In the gene-set enrichment analysis using the DE genes, 79 biological processes (BP) were identified and were grouped into 12 superclusters. The main BP found were involved in the response to biotic stimulus, gas transport, cellular activation, carbohydrate-derived catabolism, multi-organism regulation, immune system, muscle contraction, multi-organism process, cytolysis, leukocytes and cell adhesion. In this study, the first transcriptome analysis of the broilers femur articular cartilage was performed, and a set of candidate genes (AvBD1, AvBD2, ANK1, EPX, ADA, RHAG) that could trigger changes in the broiler´s femoral growth plate was identified. Moreover, these results could be helpful to better understand FHN in chickens and possibly in humans.
运动问题是当前家禽业的主要关注点之一，会造成重大经济损失，并影响动物福利。股骨最常见的骨骼异常包括软骨发育不良、股骨头分离（FHS）和细菌性软骨坏死伴骨髓炎（BCO），也称为股骨头坏死（FHN）。本研究旨在通过 RNA-Seq 分析鉴定正常和 FHS 肉鸡关节软骨中的差异表达（DE）基因。在转录组分析中，在股骨关节软骨中表达了 12169 个基因。其中，107 个基因在正常和受影响的鸡之间存在 DE（FDR<0.05），其中 9 个下调，98 个上调。在用 DE 基因进行基因集富集分析时，确定了 79 个生物过程（BP），并将其分为 12 个超级簇。主要的 BP 涉及对生物刺激的反应、气体运输、细胞激活、碳水化合物衍生的分解代谢、多生物体调节、免疫系统、肌肉收缩、多生物体过程、细胞溶解、白细胞和细胞黏附。在这项研究中，首次对肉鸡股骨关节软骨进行了转录组分析，并确定了一组候选基因（AvBD1、AvBD2、ANK1、EPX、ADA、RHAG），这些基因可能引发肉鸡股骨生长板的变化。此外，这些结果可能有助于更好地理解鸡和人类的 FHN。
