Abstract
Our aims are to determine the effects of dietary betaine supplementation on growth performance, percentage of abdominal fat, ratio of liver to body weight, mRNA expression levels of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), fat acid synthase (FAS) and adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP) genes in the abdominal fat of hens. In addition, promoter DNA methylation patterns of FAS gene were also analyzed by bisulfite sequencing. A total 120 of Hy-Line White laying hens were randomly divided into four diet groups with supplemented betaine of 0, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08%, respectively. At 180 old days of age, the significant difference in egg production was observed between the control and 0.08% betaine diet group (P 0.05). Furthermore, the overall GpG methylation patterns at the FAS gene promoter region ranging from −961 to −749 were not significantly different among all groups in 180-day-old hens (P > 0.05), CpG methylation mainly occur from 1 st to 5 th sites. This study suggests that betaine could regulate lipogenesis of laying chickens by affecting the transcription of FAS genes, and that DNA methylation at some CpG dinucleotides may play a role in regulating FAS gene expression. Key words: Betaine, CpG methylation, gene expression, laying hen, lipogenesis genes.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call