Response of the ileum transcriptome to fructo-oligosaccharides in Taiping chickens

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) supplementation intake of Taiping chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) and its stimulating effects on ileum. 120 healthy chickens were randomly divided into two groups; control group (CT) and fructo-oligosaccharides group (FOS). At the 60th day of age, ileum mucosa of three chickens per group were collected and performed transcriptome profiling of Taiping chicken ileum mucosa using the Hiseq™ 2500 sequencing platform. Compared with CT group, 50 genes were differentially expressed in the FOS group. Ten of the differently expressed genes were further validated by RT-qPCR. In addition, gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes analyses revealed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched to drug metabolism-cytochrome P450, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, retinol metabolism, fat digestion and absorption, herpes simplex infection and valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis. The results of this study provided the help to our understanding application of fructo-oligosaccharides in indigenous chicken production and provide a theoretical basis for the genetic development of indigenous chickens.