Metabolomic analysis of the egg yolk during the embryonic development of broilers

Huichao Liu; Peng Ding; Yueyue Tong; Xi He; Yulong Yin; Haihan Zhang; Zehe Song

doi:10.1016/j.psj.2021.01.036

Metabolomic analysis of the egg yolk during the embryonic development of broilers

Poult Sci. 2021 Apr;100(4):101014. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2021.01.036. Epub 2021 Jan 23.

Authors

Huichao Liu¹, Peng Ding¹, Yueyue Tong¹, Xi He², Yulong Yin³, Haihan Zhang⁴, Zehe Song²

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center of Feed Safety and Efficient Use, Changsha, Hunan, China; Hunan Engineering Research Center of Poultry Production Safety, Changsha, Hunan, China; Hunan Co-Innovation Center of Animal Production Safety, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center of Feed Safety and Efficient Use, Changsha, Hunan, China; Hunan Co-Innovation Center of Animal Production Safety, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁴ College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center of Feed Safety and Efficient Use, Changsha, Hunan, China; Hunan Engineering Research Center of Poultry Production Safety, Changsha, Hunan, China; Hunan Co-Innovation Center of Animal Production Safety, Changsha, Hunan, China. Electronic address: zhhous@163.com.

Abstract

The chicken egg yolk, which is abundant with lipids, proteins, and minerals, is the major nutrient resource for the embryonic development. In fact, the magnitude and type of yolk nutrients are dynamically changed during the chicken embryogenesis to meet the developmental and nutritional requests at different stages. The yolk nutrients are metabolized and absorbed by the yolk sac membrane and then used by the embryo or other extraembryonic tissues. Thus, understanding the metabolites in the yolk helps to unveil the developmental nutritional requirements for the chicken embryo. In this study, we performed ultra high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) analysis to investigate the change of metabolites in the egg yolk at embryonic (E) 07, E09, E11, E15, E17, and E19. The results showed that 1) the egg yolk metabolites at E07 and E09 were approximately similar, but E09, E11, E15, E17, and E19 were different from each other, indicating the developmental and metabolic change of the egg yolk; and 2) most of the metabolites were annotated in amino acid metabolism pathways from E11 to E15 and E17 to E19. Especially, arginine, lysine, cysteine, and histidine were continuously increased during the embryonic development, probably because of their effects on the growth promotion and oxidative stress amelioration of the embryo. Interestingly, the ferroptosis was found as one of major processes occurred from E15 to E17 and E17 to E19. Owing to the upregulated expression of acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4 detected in the yolk sac, we assumed that the ferroptosis of the yolk sac was perhaps caused by the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, which was induced by the large amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids and influx of iron in the yolk. Our findings might offer a novel understanding of embryonic nutrition of broilers according to the developmental changes of metabolites in the egg yolk and may provide new ideas to improve the health and nutrition for prehatch broiler chickens.

Keywords: chicken; embryogenesis; metabolomics; yolk.

MeSH terms

Animals
Chick Embryo
Chickens*
Egg Yolk*
Embryonic Development
Tandem Mass Spectrometry / veterinary
Yolk Sac