Ye Mao, Fan Zhexia, Xu Yuhang, Luan Kang, Guo Lijin, Zhang Siyu, Luo Qingbin
Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Key Laboratory of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou, China.
Front Vet Sci. 2023 May 10;10:1180797. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1180797. eCollection 2023.
Excessive fat deposition in chickens can lead to reduced feed utilization and meat quality, resulting in significant economic losses for the broiler industry. Therefore, reducing fat deposition has become an important breeding objective in addition to achieving high broiler weight, growth rate, and feed conversion efficiency. In our previous studies, we observed high expression of Regulators of G Protein Signaling 16 Gene () in high-fat individuals. This led us to speculate that might be involved in the process of fat deposition in chickens.
Thus, we conducted a polymorphism and functional analysis of the RGS16 gene to investigate its association with fat-related phenotypic traits in chickens. Using a mixed linear model (MLM), this study explored the relationship between RGS16 gene polymorphisms and fat-related traits for the first time. We identified 30 SNPs of in a population of Wens Sanhuang chickens, among which 8 SNPs were significantly associated with fat-related traits, including sebum thickness (ST), abdominal fat weight (AFW), and abdominal fat weight (AFR). Furthermore, our findings demonstrated that AFW, AFR, and ST showed significant associations with at least two or more out of the eight identified SNPs of RGS16. We also validated the role of in ICP-1 cells through various experimental methods, including RT-qPCR, CCK- 8, EdU assays, and oil red O staining.
Our functional validation experiments showed that was highly expressed in the abdominal adipose tissue of high-fat chickens and played a critical role in the regulation of fat deposition by promoting preadipocyte differentiation and inhibiting their proliferation. Taken together, our findings suggest that polymorphisms are associated with fat-related traits in chickens. Moreover, the ectopic expression of could inhibit preadipocyte proliferation but promote preadipocyte differentiation.
Based on our current findings, we propose that the RGS16 gene could serve as a powerful genetic marker for marker-assisted breeding of chicken fat-related traits.
鸡体内脂肪过度沉积会导致饲料利用率和肉质下降，给肉鸡产业造成重大经济损失。因此，除了实现高肉鸡体重、生长速度和饲料转化效率外，减少脂肪沉积已成为一项重要的育种目标。在我们之前的研究中，我们观察到G蛋白信号调节因子16基因（RGS16）在高脂个体中高表达。这使我们推测RGS16可能参与鸡的脂肪沉积过程。
因此，我们对RGS16基因进行了多态性和功能分析，以研究其与鸡脂肪相关表型性状的关联。本研究首次使用混合线性模型（MLM）探索RGS16基因多态性与脂肪相关性状之间的关系。我们在温氏三黄鸡群体中鉴定出30个RGS16基因的单核苷酸多态性（SNP），其中8个SNP与脂肪相关性状显著相关，包括皮脂厚度（ST）、腹脂重量（AFW）和腹脂率（AFR）。此外，我们的研究结果表明，AFW、AFR和ST与RGS16基因鉴定出的8个SNP中的至少两个或更多个显著相关。我们还通过多种实验方法，包括逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）、细胞计数试剂盒-8（CCK-8）、5-乙炔基-2'-脱氧尿苷（EdU）检测和油红O染色，验证了RGS16在鸡前脂肪细胞（ICP-1）中的作用。
我们的功能验证实验表明，RGS16在高脂鸡的腹部脂肪组织中高表达，并通过促进前脂肪细胞分化和抑制其增殖在脂肪沉积调节中发挥关键作用。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明RGS16基因多态性与鸡的脂肪相关性状有关。此外，RGS16的异位表达可以抑制前脂肪细胞增殖，但促进前脂肪细胞分化。
基于我们目前的研究结果，我们提出RGS16基因可作为鸡脂肪相关性状标记辅助育种的有力遗传标记。
