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Updated: May 14, 2026

Strategies to Enhance Cultivation of Anaerobic Bacteria from Gastrointestinal Tract of Chicken
Published on: May 10, 2024
Quantitative genetic background of the host influences gut microbiomes in chickens
Lele Zhao1, Gang Wang, Paul Siegel
1School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Host genotype and gender are among the factors that influence the composition of gut microbiota. We studied the population structure of gut microbiota in two lines of chickens maintained under the same husbandry and dietary regimes. The lines, which originated from a common founder population, had undergone 54 generations of selection for high (HW) or low (LW) 56-day body weight, and now differ by more than 10-fold in body weight at selection age. Of 190 microbiome species, 68 were affected by genotype (line), gender, and genotype by gender interactions. Fifteen of the 68 species belong to Lactobacillus. Species affected by genotype, gender, and the genotype by gender interaction, were 29, 48, and 12, respectively. Species affected by gender were 30 and 17 in the HW and LW lines, respectively. Thus, under a common diet and husbandry host quantitative genotype and gender influenced gut microbiota composite.
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