Quantitative trait loci identified for blood chemistry components of an advanced intercross line of chickens under heat stress

Background: Heat stress in poultry results in considerable economic losses and is a concern for both animal health and welfare. Physiological changes occur during periods of heat stress, including changes in blood chemistry components. A highly advanced intercross line, created from a broiler (heat susceptible) by Fayoumi (heat resistant) cross, was exposed to daily heat cycles for seven days starting at 22 days of age. Blood components measured pre-heat treatment and on the seventh day of heat treatment included pH, pCO2, pO2, base excess, HCO3, TCO2, K, Na, ionized Ca, hematocrit, hemoglobin, sO2, and glucose. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) for these traits and their calculated changes was conducted to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) using a 600 K SNP panel. Results: There were significant increases in pH, base excess, HCO3, TCO2, ionized Ca, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and sO2, and significant decreases in pCO2 and glucose after 7 days of heat treatment. Heritabilities ranged from 0.01-0.21 for pre-heat measurements, 0.01-0.23 for measurements taken during heat, and 0.00-0.10 for the calculated change due to heat treatment. All blood components were highly correlated within measurement days, but not correlated between measurement days. The GWAS revealed 61 QTL for all traits, located on GGA (Gallus gallus chromosome) 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12–14, 17, 18, 21–28, and Z. A functional analysis of the genes in these QTL regions identified the Angiopoietin pathway as significant. The QTL that co-localized for three or more traits were on GGA10, 22, 26, 28, and Z and revealed candidate genes for birds’ response to heat stress. Conclusions: The results of this study contribute to our knowledge of levels and heritabilities of several blood components of chickens under thermoneutral and heat stress conditions. Most components responded to heat treatment. Mapped QTL may serve as markers for genomic selection to enhance heat tolerance in poultry. The Angiopoietin pathway is likely involved in the response to heat stress in chickens. Several candidate genes were identified, giving additional insight into potential mechanisms of physiologic response to high ambient temperatures

Biologically active and health promoting food components of nuts, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, cereals, and legumes

The primary role of diet is to provide, in quality and quantity, enough nutrients to meet basic metabolic requirements of consumers. Cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oils, and related products are daily consumed by worldwide population as fundamental source of food energy, but also due to its richness in biologically active compounds with potential health promoting properties. There are thousands of bioactive compounds already identified and studied for their health promoting properties, however there still a lot of research to be done. This chapter describes the main food sources, as well as, health promoting properties, of some food components (phytosterols, fatty acids, polyphenols, carotenoids, glucosinolates, dietary fiber, isoflavones, and lignans). In fact, these compounds were selected due to its abundance in some of the major consumed food groups. Nuts, oilseeds, and derived products are well known for their richness in phytosterols and unsaturated fatty acids. In the last years, great attention has been given to this group of compounds because they are linked with several health benefits, namely antiinflammatory, antioxidative, anticarcinogenic activities, and cholesterol lowering capacity. On the other hand, fresh fruit and vegetables are the major sources of polyphenols, carotenoids, and glucosinolates. Nutritional guidelines promote the consumption of three to five daily servings of fruits and vegetables for protection against chronic diseases, such as cardio and neurovascular diseases. These foods, besides providing basic nutrition confers other significant health effects mainly due to its content in vitamins (especially vitamins C and A) minerals, polyphenols, and soluble and insoluble fiber. Lastly, cereals and/or legumes are the major sources of dietary fiber, lignans, and isoflavones. Besides their nutritional role, several scientific and epidemiological studies have shown that regular consumption of cereals and/or legumes and their related products are associated with reduced risk of various types of chronic diseases as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, and some types of cancers as colorectal, prostate, breast, and estrogen-related cancers. These evidences can mean that regular consumption of cereals and legumes promote human health and consequent prevention of diseases.This work has been funded by National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, I.P., under the project BioCOMP (reference number: 2012DAN730). This work was also supported by the project UID/QUI/50006/2019 (FCT/MCTES). M. Antónia Nunes acknowledges the PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/130131/2017) funded by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio