Chicken Protein S Gene Regulates Adipogenesis and Affects Abdominal Fat Deposition.

(1) Background: Excessive abdominal fat deposition in broilers not only causes feed waste but also leads to a series of metabolic diseases. It has gradually become a new breeding goal of the broiler industry to improve growth rates and to reduce abdominal fat rates. In a previous study, was highly expressed in low-abdominal fat broilers, suggesting a potential role in broilers adipogenesis. However, the function of in preadipocytes and its association with abdominal fat traits need to be characterized. (2) Methods: qRT-PCR and Western Blot were used to quantify gene expression at the RNA and protein levels; flow cytometry and EdU were carried out to detect cell proliferation; and a GLM analysis was used to determine the association between SNPs and carcass traits. (3) Results: was downregulated in high-abdominal fat chicken; contributed preadipocyte proliferation but suppressed preadipocyte differentiation; and the SNPs in the 5' flank were significantly associated with the abdominal fat weight rate. (4) Conclusions: Chicken is able to suppress adipogenesis, and its polymorphisms are associated with the abdominal fat weight rate, which can be considered the molecular markers for chicken breeding, indicating that is an effective potential gene in regulating abdominal fat deposition.