Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Poult Sci. 2023 Apr;102(4):102568. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102568. Epub 2023 Feb 9.
Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is a meat quality trait of major economic importance in animal production. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that meat quality can be improved by regulating the gut microbiota. However, the organization and ecological properties of the gut microbiota and its relationship with the IMF content remain unclear in chickens. Here, we investigated the microbial communities of 206 cecal samples from broilers with excellent meat quality. We noted that the cecal microbial ecosystem obtained from hosts reared under the same management and dietary conditions showed clear compositional stratification. Two enterotypes, in which the ecological properties, including diversity and interaction strengths, were significantly different, described the microbial composition pattern. Compared with enterotype 2, enterotype 1, distinguished by the Clostridia_vadinBB60_group, had a higher fat deposition, although no discrepancy was found in growth performance and meat yield. A moderate correlation was observed in the IMF content between 2 muscle tissues, despite the IMF content of thigh muscle was 42.76% greater than that of breast muscle. Additionally, the lower abundance of cecal vadinBE97 was related to higher IMF levels in both muscle tissues. Although vadinBE97 accounted for 0.40% of the total abundance of genera in the cecum, it exhibited significant and positive correlations with other genera (accounting for 25.3% of the tested genera). Our results highlight important insights into the cecal microbial ecosystem and its association with meat quality. Microbial interactions should be carefully considered when developing approaches to improve the IMF content by regulating the gut microbiota in broilers.
肌内脂肪（IMF）含量是动物生产中具有重要经济意义的肉质性状。新出现的证据表明，通过调节肠道微生物群可以改善肉质。然而，肠道微生物群的组织和生态特性及其与 IMF 含量的关系在鸡中尚不清楚。在这里，我们研究了来自肉质优良的肉鸡 206 个盲肠样本中的微生物群落。我们注意到，在相同管理和饮食条件下饲养的宿主获得的盲肠微生物生态系统表现出明显的组成分层。两种肠型，其生态特性，包括多样性和相互作用强度，有显著差异，描述了微生物组成模式。与肠型 2 相比，以梭菌_vadinBB60_群为特征的肠型 1 具有更高的脂肪沉积，尽管在生长性能和肉质产量方面没有差异。尽管大腿肌的 IMF 含量比胸肌高 42.76%，但在 2 种肌肉组织之间观察到 IMF 含量之间存在中度相关性。此外，盲肠 vadinBE97 的丰度较低与两种肌肉组织中的 IMF 水平较高有关。尽管 vadinBE97 占盲肠总属丰度的 0.40%，但它与其他属（占测试属的 25.3%）呈显著正相关。我们的研究结果突出了盲肠微生物生态系统及其与肉质的关联的重要见解。在开发通过调节肉鸡肠道微生物群来提高 IMF 含量的方法时，应仔细考虑微生物相互作用。
