To explore metabolic characteristics during the post-hatch developmental period, metabolomic analyses of breast muscle and plasma were performed in chickens. The most significant growth-related changes in metabolite levels were observed between seven and 28 days of age. Some of these metabolites are essential nutrients or reported as growth-promoting metabolites. In the muscle, two imidazole dipeptides-carnosine and its methylated metabolite, anserine-increased with the development. These dipeptide levels may be, in part, regulated transcriptionally because in the muscle mRNA levels of carnosine synthase and carnosine methylation enzyme increased. In contrast, taurine levels in the muscle decreased. This would be substrate availability-dependent because some upstream metabolites decreased in the muscle or plasma. In branched-chain amino acid metabolism, valine, leucine, and isoleucine decreased in the muscle, while some of their downstream metabolites decreased in the plasma. The polyamines, putrescine and spermidine, decreased in the muscle. Furthermore, mRNA levels associated with insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling, which play important roles in muscle growth, increased in the muscle. These results indicate that some metabolic pathways would be important to clarify metabolic characteristics and/or growth of breast muscle during the post-hatch developmental period in chickens.
Keywords: carnosine; growth; insulin/IGF-1 signaling; metabolomics; plasma; skeletal muscle.