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Potential Roles of mTOR and Protein Degradation Pathways in the Phenotypic Expression of Feed Efficiency in Broilers
| Walter G. Bottje1*, Byung-Whi Kong1, Jeong Yoon Lee1, Tyrone Washington2, Jamie I. Baum3, Sami Dridi1, Terry Wing4 and John Hardiman4 | |
| 1Department of Poultry Science, Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA | |
| 2Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA | |
| 3Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA | |
| 4Cobb-Vantress, Inc., Siloam Springs Arkansas, USA | |
| *Corresponding Author : | Walter G. Bottje Department of Poultry Science Center of Excellence for Poultry Science University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA Tel: +1- (479) 575-4399 Fax: +1-(479) 575-7139 Email: wbottje@uark.edu |
| Received January 03, 2014; Accepted January 31, 2014; Published February 03, 2014 | |
| Citation: Bottje WG, Kong BW, Lee JY, Washington T, Baum J, et al. (2014) Potential Roles of mTOR and Protein Degradation Pathways in the Phenotypic Expression of Feed Efficiency in Broilers. Biochem Physiol 3:125. doi:10.4172/2168-9652.1000125 | |
| Copyright: © 2014 Bottje WG, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
The cost of feed represents as much as 70% of the total cost of raising a meat producing animal to market weight. Thus, feed efficiency (FE; g gain: g feed) is a very important genetic trait in animal agriculture. We have observed that a hallmark of low feed efficiency in a highly selected male broiler (meat chicken) line was extensive protein oxidation that probably resulted from increased reactive oxygen species being produced by the mitochondria. Repair or resynthesis of damaged proteins would therefore represent a considerable energetic drain and contribute to the phenotypic expression of low feed efficiency. In the present study, a software program (Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, IPA) facilitated the analysis and interpretation of data from a 4 x 44k chicken oligo array on breast muscle along with data from previous studies obtained from broilers individually phenotyped for FE. The findings support a hypothesis that differential expression of genes associated with the Akt/mTOR, protein ubiquitination, and proteasome pathways through modulation of transcription and protein turnover could play an important role in the phenotypic expression of feed efficiency. Confirmation of this hypothesis will require a thorough assessment of protein expression as well as protein and enzyme activity measurements associated with these pathways in the low and high FE broiler phenotypes.
