ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Comparative and Clinical Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1592068
Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of Polydactyly in Chickens
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Animal Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, China
- 2Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
- 3School of Pharmacy, Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 4Guizhou Province Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Management Station, Guiyang, China, Guizhou, China
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Polydactyly, the presence of extra digits on the limbs, is a heritable trait observed in several vertebrate species, including chickens. This study aimed to investigate the genetic and transcriptomic profiling of polydactyly in the Puan Panjiang black-bone chicken, a unique breed native to China. We performed genome-wide resequencing and transcriptome analysis on chickens with normal and polydactylous toes to identify candidate genes and regulatory networks associated with this trait. Our results revealed significant genomic divergence between polydactylous and normal chickens, highlighting several positively selected genes, such as AUH, SEMA4D, and ROR2, in polydactylous chickens. Moreover, pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the MAPK signaling pathway plays a crucial role in limb development, with additional pathways related to lipid metabolism and neural regulation identified in polydactylous chickens. Transcriptome dynamics during toe development suggest that the differentiation of extra toes occurs predominantly between embryonic Days 8 and 9. These findings suggest that specific genetic variations and dysregulated expression networks contribute to extra digit formation, offering a foundation for further research and genetic improvement.
Keywords: Population Genomics, Transcriptomics, Gene selection, Polydactyly trait, chicken
Received: 12 Mar 2025; Accepted: 25 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Miao, Li, Liu, Haolin and Su. 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: Yuan Su, College of Animal Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, China
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