Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction in the Plateau Mountainous Region, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Guizhou province, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 27;14(1):22321. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-73726-9.
Aggressive pecking is an important welfare and production efficiency issue in poultry farming. The precise mechanisms underlying the occurrence of aggressive pecking remain poorly understood. In this study, we selected Sansui ducks that performed aggressive pecking and ducks that did not perform aggressive pecking from video recordings. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of the whole brains of aggressive pecking ducks and normal ducks revealed 504 differentially expressed genes and 5 differentially altered metabolites (adenosine, guanidinopropionic acid, Met-Leu, Glu-Ile and 5,6,8-trihydroxy-2-methylbenzo[g]chromen-4-one). By jointly analysing the transcriptomics and metabolomics results, we discovered 8 candidate genes (ADCYAP1, GAL, EDN2, EDN1, MC5R, S1PR4, LOC113843450, and IAPP) and one candidate metabolite (adenosine) that regulates aggressive pecking behaviour in ducks. The candidate genes and metabolites may be involved in regulating aggressive pecking behaviour by inducing neurodegeneration and disrupting neural excitatory-inhibitory homeostasis, which in turn affects central nervous system function in aggressive pecking and normal ducks. Our findings provide a new reference for revealing the underlying mechanism of aggressive pecking behaviour in ducks.
啄癖是家禽养殖中的一个重要福利和生产效率问题。啄癖发生的确切机制仍知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们从视频记录中选择了表现出啄癖的三穗鸭和不表现出啄癖的三穗鸭。对啄癖鸭和正常鸭全脑的转录组和代谢组分析显示，有 504 个差异表达基因和 5 个差异代谢物（腺苷、胍基丙氨酸、Met-Leu、Glu-Ile 和 5,6,8-三羟基-2-甲基苯并[g]色烯-4-酮）发生改变。通过联合分析转录组学和代谢组学结果，我们发现了 8 个候选基因（ADCYAP1、GAL、EDN2、EDN1、MC5R、S1PR4、LOC113843450 和 IAPP）和一个候选代谢物（腺苷），它们调节鸭的啄癖行为。候选基因和代谢物可能通过诱导神经退行性变和破坏神经兴奋-抑制平衡来调节啄癖行为，进而影响啄癖和正常鸭的中枢神经系统功能。我们的研究结果为揭示鸭啄癖行为的潜在机制提供了新的参考。
