Abstract：
Heterosis has been widely utilized in agricultural production. Despite over a century of extensive research, the underlying mechanisms of heterosis remain elusive. Most hypotheses and research have focused on the genetic basis of heterosis. However, the potential role of gut microbiota in heterosis has been largely ignored. Here, we carefully design a crossbreeding experiment with two distinct broiler breeds and conduct 16S rRNA amplicon and transcriptome sequencing to investigate the synergistic role of gut microbiota and host genes in driving heterosis. We find that the breast muscle weight of the hybrids exhibits a high heterosis, 6.28% higher than mid-parent value. A notable difference is observed in the composition and potential function of cecal microbiota between hybrids and their parents. Over 90% of the differentially colonized microbiota and differentially expressed genes exhibit nonadditive patterns. Integrative analyses uncover associations between nonadditive genes and nonadditive microbiota, including a connection between the expression of cellular signaling pathway and metabolism-related genes and the abundance of Odoribacter, Oscillibacter, and Alistipes in hybrids. Moreover, higher abundances of these microbiota are related to better meat yield. In summary, these findings highlight the importance of gut microbiota in heterosis, serving as crucial factors that modulate heterosis expression in chickens.
摘要：
杂种优势在农业生产中得到了广泛的利用。尽管进行了一个多世纪的广泛研究，杂种优势的潜在机制仍然难以捉摸。大多数假设和研究都集中在杂种优势的遗传基础上。然而,肠道菌群在杂种优势中的潜在作用在很大程度上被忽略。这里,我们精心设计了一个具有两个不同肉鸡品种的杂交实验，并进行了16SrRNA扩增子和转录组测序，以研究肠道菌群和宿主基因在驱动杂种优势中的协同作用。我们发现杂种的胸肌重量表现出很高的杂种优势，高于中亲值6.28%。在杂种及其父母之间的盲肠微生物群的组成和潜在功能中观察到显着差异。超过90％的差异定植的微生物群和差异表达的基因表现出非加性模式。整合分析揭示了非加性基因和非加性微生物群之间的关联，包括细胞信号通路和代谢相关基因的表达与Odoribacter的丰度之间的联系，镰刀菌,和混血儿中的Alistipes。此外，这些微生物群的丰度更高与更好的肉类产量有关。总之,这些发现强调了肠道菌群在杂种优势中的重要性，作为调节鸡杂种优势表达的关键因素。
