Search

KLF5is an important regulator of cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in mammals. Little is known about the function of KLF5in the regulation of chicken. Hence, qPCR was used to detect the expression of KLF5in different tissues of chicken. And chicken skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSCs) were transfected KLF5-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) to assay SMSCs’ proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The results showed that KLF5expressed higher in skeletal muscle than in the other tissues of chicken. Knockdown of KLF5significantly inhibited the differentiation and increased apoptosis of chicken SMSCs, but it had no significant effect on proliferation of SMSCs. These results indicate that KLF5plays an essential role during myogenesis, which will affect muscle repair and muscle regeneration, and may ameliorate muscle aging or sarcopenia.

Coat color genetics successfully adapted and applied to different animal species, which provides a good demonstration of the concept of comparative genetics. In this study, we sequenced 945 bp fragments of melanocortin 1 receptor(MC1R) gene, 421 bp fragments of exon 1 of tyrosinase(TYR) gene and 266 bp fragments of exon 3 of agouti signaling protein(ASIP) gene for 250 individuals with five plumage color patterns. We detected a total of three SNPs (T398A, T637C, and G920C) in MC1Rand built six haplotypes (H1–H6) based on the three SNPs. H5 and H6 haplotypes were mainly concentrated in white and grey chicken. And diplotypes H2H3 occurred in white feather and black-speckle feather with the same frequency. Moreover, a total of three SNPs (C47G, T120C, and T172C) in TYRwere found and built six haplotypes (P1–P6) based on the three SNPs. Among them, haplotype P2, P3 and P6 were not occurred in black chicken, the diplotypes P1P6 and P4P6 were only distributed in white, gray and black-speckled feather. We only detected one SNP (T168C) in ASIPgene and found that genotype TT was advantage genotype in the different plumage color groups of chickens. Collectively, our study suggested an association between plumage color and genetic variation of MC1R, TYRand ASIPin chicken.