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The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders

BACKGROUND: Feather pecking is a serious behavioral disorder in chickens that has a considerable impact on animal welfare and poses an economic burden for poultry farming. To study the underlying genetics of feather pecking animals were divergently selected for feather pecking over 15 generations ba...

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Autores principales: Falker-Gieske, Clemens, Bennewitz, Jörn, Tetens, Jens
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8825407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34954808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-07111-4
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author Falker-Gieske, Clemens
Bennewitz, Jörn
Tetens, Jens
author_facet Falker-Gieske, Clemens
Bennewitz, Jörn
Tetens, Jens
author_sort Falker-Gieske, Clemens
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Feather pecking is a serious behavioral disorder in chickens that has a considerable impact on animal welfare and poses an economic burden for poultry farming. To study the underlying genetics of feather pecking animals were divergently selected for feather pecking over 15 generations based on estimated breeding values for the behavior. METHODS AND RESULTS: By characterizing the transcriptomes of whole brains isolated from high and low feather pecking chickens in response to light stimulation we discovered a putative dysregulation of micro RNA processing caused by a lack of Dicer1. This results in a prominent downregulation of the GABRB2 gene and other GABA receptor transcripts, which might cause a constant high level of excitation in the brains of high feather pecking chickens. Moreover, our results point towards an increase in immune system-related transcripts that may be caused by higher interferon concentrations due to Dicer1 downregulation. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, we conclude that feather pecking in chickens and schizophrenia in humans have numerous common features. For instance, a Dicer1 dependent disruption of miRNA biogenesis and the lack of GABRB2 expression have been linked to schizophrenia pathogenesis. Furthermore, disturbed circadian rhythms and dysregulation of genes involved in the immune system are common features of both conditions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11033-021-07111-4.
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spelling pubmed-88254072022-02-23 The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders Falker-Gieske, Clemens Bennewitz, Jörn Tetens, Jens Mol Biol Rep Short Communication BACKGROUND: Feather pecking is a serious behavioral disorder in chickens that has a considerable impact on animal welfare and poses an economic burden for poultry farming. To study the underlying genetics of feather pecking animals were divergently selected for feather pecking over 15 generations based on estimated breeding values for the behavior. METHODS AND RESULTS: By characterizing the transcriptomes of whole brains isolated from high and low feather pecking chickens in response to light stimulation we discovered a putative dysregulation of micro RNA processing caused by a lack of Dicer1. This results in a prominent downregulation of the GABRB2 gene and other GABA receptor transcripts, which might cause a constant high level of excitation in the brains of high feather pecking chickens. Moreover, our results point towards an increase in immune system-related transcripts that may be caused by higher interferon concentrations due to Dicer1 downregulation. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, we conclude that feather pecking in chickens and schizophrenia in humans have numerous common features. For instance, a Dicer1 dependent disruption of miRNA biogenesis and the lack of GABRB2 expression have been linked to schizophrenia pathogenesis. Furthermore, disturbed circadian rhythms and dysregulation of genes involved in the immune system are common features of both conditions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11033-021-07111-4. Springer Netherlands 2021-12-26 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8825407/ /pubmed/34954808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-07111-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Short Communication
Falker-Gieske, Clemens
Bennewitz, Jörn
Tetens, Jens
The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title_full The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title_fullStr The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title_full_unstemmed The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title_short The light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
title_sort light response in chickens divergently selected for feather pecking behavior reveals mechanistic insights towards psychiatric disorders
topic Short Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8825407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34954808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-07111-4
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