FMO3 deficiency of duck leads to decreased lipid deposition and increased antibacterial activity

Xingzheng Li; Jianlou Song; Xuefeng Shi; Mingyi Huang; Lei Liu; Guoqiang Yi; Ning Yang; Guiyun Xu; Jiangxia Zheng

doi:10.1186/s40104-022-00777-1

FMO3 deficiency of duck leads to decreased lipid deposition and increased antibacterial activity

J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2022 Nov 16;13(1):119. doi: 10.1186/s40104-022-00777-1.

Authors

Xingzheng Li^#^{1

2}, Jianlou Song^#¹, Xuefeng Shi¹, Mingyi Huang¹, Lei Liu², Guoqiang Yi², Ning Yang¹, Guiyun Xu¹, Jiangxia Zheng³

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
² Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518124, China.
³ College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China. jxzheng@cau.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Most duck eggs possess a fishy odor, indicating that ducks generally exhibit impaired trimethylamine (TMA) metabolism. TMA accumulation is responsible for this unpleasant odor, and TMA metabolism plays an essential role in trimethylaminuria (TMAU), also known as fish odor syndrome. In this study, we focused on the unusual TMA metabolism mechanism in ducks, and further explored the unclear reasons leading to the debilitating TMA metabolism.

Methods: To achieve this, transcriptome, proteome, and metagenome analyses were first integrated based on the constructed duck populations with high and low TMA metabolism abilities. Additionally, further experiments were conducted to validate the hypothesis regarding the limited flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) metabolism ability of ducks.

Results: The study demonstrated that liver FMO3 and cecal microbes, including Akkermansia and Mucispirillum, participated in TMA metabolism in ducks. The limited oxidation ability of FMO3 explains the weakening of TMA metabolism in ducks. Nevertheless, it decreases lipid deposition and increases antibacterial activity, contributing to its survival and reproduction during the evolutionary adaptation process.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the function of FMO3 and intestinal microbes in regulating TMA metabolism and illustrated the biological significance of FMO3 impairment in ducks.

Keywords: Antibacterial; Cardiovascular disease (CVD); Duck; Flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3); Metagenome; Proteome; Transcriptome; Trimethylamine (TMA).