Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Systems Microbiology

Gut Microbiome Associated with Melanin Deposition by Supporting Energy Metabolism in Sichuan Mountainous Black-bone Chickens

Provisionally accepted
Yi ZhouYi Zhou1,2Ling DuanLing Duan3Gang WangGang Wang2Shigang YUShigang YU2Xuemei ShenXuemei Shen2Min JiangMin Jiang1Ke ShenKe Shen1Rajeev K. SinglaRajeev K. Singla1Juan LiaoJuan Liao2Bairong ShenBairong Shen1*
  • 1West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 2College of Life Science, Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China
  • 3Central Station of Animal Feed Affairs of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Variation in melanin deposition profoundly influences the economic value of Sichuan mountainous black-boned chickens; however, the contribution of the gut microbiome in modulating this process remains poorly understood. This study aimed to characterize the gut microbiome in Sichuan mountainous black-bone chickens with distinct skin color brightness, as quantified by a colorimeter, and explored its association with melanin deposition. We employed ‌16S rRNA sequencing‌ to profile cecal microbiota composition and ‌untargeted metabolomics‌ to determine serum metabolic profiles. Our results revealed that the dark-skinned (BlackD) group displayed higher alpha diversity and significant alterations in 10 bacterial genera compared with the light-skinned (BlackL) group. These genera were primarily associated with short-chain fatty acid metabolism and melanin-related metabolites. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that energy metabolism-related KEGG pathways, including AMPK signaling, insulin signaling, thyroid hormone signaling, and MetaCyc pathways were enriched in the BlackD group. Untargeted serum metabolomics further revealed distinct metabolic profiles, with BlackD chickens exhibiting elevated levels of melanin-related metabolites, such as L-Tyrosine, L-DOPA, and Dopaquinone. Notably, the gut microbiome and serum metabolite profiles in the BlackD group were strongly linked to enhanced energy metabolism, suggesting that the gut microbiome may influence melanin deposition by modulating host metabolic activity. Overall, our findings reveal a potential mechanism in which microbiome-derived metabolites support the high energy requirements of melanocyte activity.

Keywords: Sichuan mountainous Black-bone chicken, gut microbiome, untargeted-metabolome, Pigmentation, melanin

Received: 08 Aug 2025; Accepted: 05 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Duan, Wang, YU, Shen, Jiang, Shen, Singla, Liao and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Bairong Shen, bairong.shen@scu.edu.cn

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material