Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Transcriptome Response to Heat Stress in Kenyan Chicken Ecotypes Adapted to Low and High Altitudes Reveal Differences in Thermal Tolerance and Stress Response.

ABSTRACT: Heat stress (HS) negatively affects chicken performance. Agricultural expansion will happen in regions that experience high ambient temperatures, where fast-growing commercial chickens are vulnerable. Indigenous chickens of such regions, due to generations of exposure to environmental challenges, might have higher thermal tolerance. In this study, two indigenous chicken ecotypes, from the hot and humid Mombasa (lowland) and the colder Naivasha (highland) regions, were used to investigate the effects of acute (5 h, 35°C) and chronic (3 days of 35°C for 8 h/day) HS on the cardiac and skeletal muscle, through RNA sequencing. The rectal temperature gain and the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) [False Discovery Rate (FDR) < 0.05] were two times higher in the acute stage than in t

SUBMITTER: Srikanth K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6798392 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature