Abstract
Heat stress is one of the main environmental factors that hamper the efficiency of poultry production. Heat stress is known to be less harmful to yellow-feathered chickens (YFC) than to commercial broilers, especially in its effect on the relative weight of organs. The transcriptome was used to examine the gene expression profile of the livers of YFC that were exposed to heat stress. Mean liver weight (HW) and the hepatic weight index (HWI) of birds in the heat stress group did not differ significantly from those of the control group. A total of 596 genes were differentially expressed in the liver in response to heat stress. The enrichment results of differentially expressed genes (DEG) showed that many of these genes were related to the Fanconi anaemia pathway and that the cell cycle pathway was modulated. Thus, it can be concluded that these genes might be involved in improving the stability of the YFC liver genome and controlling the physiological response to heat stress.
 Keywords:, heat stress, liver, transcriptome, yellow-feathered chickens
Highlights
Yellow-feathered chickens are less affected by heat stress than commercial broilers, especially for its effect on weight gain (Azad et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2019)
The current findings provide evidence for the transcriptomic regulation of heat stress responses in the liver of yellow-feathered chickens (YFC)
A total of 596 differentially expressed genes (DEG) were detected to be involved in the heat stress response of the YFC liver
Summary
Yellow-feathered chickens are less affected by heat stress than commercial broilers, especially for its effect on weight gain (Azad et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2019). The decreased growth performance that is observed in poultry exposed to heat stress affects the relative weights of various tissues (Quinteirofilho et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019). This might be interpreted to indicate that heat stress can suppress tissue cell proliferation at various rates depending on the organ. The goal of this study was to compare the transcriptomes of YFC subjected to heat stress (38 ± 1 °C for eight hours/day over seven days) with the transcriptome of similar birds in a non-stressful environment
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