Indigenous broilers in crossbreeding: impacts on meat quality and candidate gene screening

Jiahao Li; Zhen Zhou; Zhaofeng Zhang; Xinyi Zheng; Yu Sun; Siyu Guo; Yaohua Li; Xin Yang; Shaofen Kong; Danfeng Cai; Duo Lin; Yu Mo; Bolin Cai; Qinghua Nie

doi:10.1016/j.psj.2025.105245

Indigenous broilers in crossbreeding: impacts on meat quality and candidate gene screening

Poult Sci. 2025 May 1;104(7):105245. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2025.105245. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jiahao Li¹, Zhen Zhou¹, Zhaofeng Zhang¹, Xinyi Zheng¹, Yu Sun¹, Siyu Guo¹, Yaohua Li¹, Xin Yang¹, Shaofen Kong¹, Danfeng Cai¹, Duo Lin¹, Yu Mo¹, Bolin Cai¹, Qinghua Nie²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Breeding, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Key Laboratory of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock Breeding, Guangzhou, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Breeding, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Key Laboratory of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock Breeding, Guangzhou, PR China. Electronic address: nqinghua@scau.edu.cn.

PMID: 40344706
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2025.105245

Abstract

In the fierce market competition, high-quality chicken products often stand out. There are significant differences in meat quality between yellow and white feathered chickens. However, the underlying mechanisms that lead to the differences in their meat quality remain unclear. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) are effective molecular markers that can be utilized in marker-assisted breeding programs targeting chicken meat quality traits. Our research findings indicated that the bloodline of yellow-feathered chickens can significantly alter the meat quality traits of chickens, especially in terms of the shear force and meat color of the breast muscle. Additionally, through metabolomic, lipidomic, and RNA-seq, we identified differentially expressed metabolites, lipids, and genes that influence meat quality. Furthermore, we discovered a key gene, the purinergic receptor P2 × 5 (P2RX5), which significantly contributes to meat quality traits. We identified five SNP sites within the P2RX5 gene and conducted genotyping. Three of these SNP sites were found to be significantly associated with meat quality traits in chickens, such as the a*value and cooking loss. These results indicated that our findings provide potential molecular markers for changing meat quality traits in chickens. However, due to our small sample size and the absence of testing on males, the generalizability of the results may be insufficient.

Keywords: Broiler; Integrative analysis; Meat quality; P2RX5; Single nucleotide polymorphism.