Morphological and transcriptional insights into the role of histone phosphorylation-related genes in early development of the chicken duodenum.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the morphological transitions and the role of histone phosphorylation-related genes during the first week of duodenal development in broilers.

Methods: At hatch (D0) and 7 days post-hatch (D7), five broiler chickens were humanely euthanized and duodenal samples were collected to assess the histomorphology, specifically the duodenal villus height (VH), crypt depth (CD), and the VH/CD ratio. The gene expression data of duodenum of broilers at D0 and D7 obtained from the GEO database. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) analyses were conducted using GEO2R. In addition, histone phosphorylation-related genes were obtained from the GeneCards database. Function enrichment for DEGs was conducted using the DAVID and PANTHER databases. Hub genes were identified using the CytoHubba plugin in Cytoscape, employing four different methods: MCON, DNMC, EPC, and MNC. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics.

Results: We identified striking developmental transformations: VH surged by 63.02% (P<0.05) and VH/CD ratio doubled (100.68% increase, P<0.05), accompanied by 17.81% CD reduction (P<0.05). Transcriptomic profiling revealed 449 histone phosphorylation-related DEGs, comprising 163 up-regulated and 286 down-regulated candidates. Functional enrichment analysis suggested that these genes participated in phosphorylation, intracellular protein phosphorylation, protein dephosphorylation, immune response, as well as MAPK, PPAR, ErbB, and adipocytokine pathways. Importantly, we identified eight hub genes orchestrating duodenal maturation, including LGALS3, ITGB2, IRF7, SOCS3, and CSF1R, KIF23, SMC2, and DLGAP5.

Conclusion: These findings establish a novel paradigm wherein histone phosphorylation coordinates intestinal morphogenesis, providing mechanistic insights for optimizing poultry intestinal health and nutritional strategies.