Genetic assessment of litter size, body weight, carcass traits and gene expression profiles in exotic and indigenous rabbit breeds: a study on New Zealand White, Californian, and Gabali rabbits in Egypt

Genetic assessment of litter size, body weight, carcass traits and gene expression profiles in exotic and indigenous rabbit breeds: a study on New Zealand White, Californian, and Gabali rabbits in Egypt

Rabbits are essential for commercial meat production due to their efficient growth and productivity, breeds like New Zealand White (NZW), Californian (CAL), and Gabali (GAB) rabbits offer unique genetic traits in litter, growth, and carcass traits. This study aimed to evaluate heritability (h 2 ), g...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tropical animal health and production Vol. 56; no. 7; p. 244
Main Authors: Ayyat, Mohamed S., El-Monem, Usama M. Abd, Moustafa, Mahmoud M. A., Al-Sagheer, Adham A., Mahran, Mohamed D., El-Attrouny, Mahmoud M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-09-2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Animals
Appetite
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Body size
Body Weight
Brain
Breeding
Carcasses
Correlation
Egypt
Energy metabolism
Female
G protein-coupled receptors
Gene expression
Gene regulation
Genes
Genotype & phenotype
Genotypes
Growth hormones
Heritability
Insulin-like growth factor I
Insulin-like growth factors
Leptin
Life Sciences
Litter
Litter size
Litter Size - genetics
Liver
Male
Meat
Meat - analysis
Meat production
Metabolism
Neuropeptide Y
Nutrient transport
Performance evaluation
Phenotype
Proopiomelanocortin
Protein transport
Rabbits
Rabbits - genetics
Rabbits - physiology
Regular Articles
Tissues
Transcriptome
Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science
Weight
White
Zoology
Egypt
Rabbits
Correlation
Litter traits, heritability
Gene expression profile
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Rabbits are essential for commercial meat production due to their efficient growth and productivity, breeds like New Zealand White (NZW), Californian (CAL), and Gabali (GAB) rabbits offer unique genetic traits in litter, growth, and carcass traits. This study aimed to evaluate heritability (h 2 ), genetic and phenotypic correlations (rg and rp) for litter size, body weight and carcass traits across California (CAL), New Zealand white (NZW) and Gabali (GA) rabbits. Along with exploring gene expression profiles of TBC1D1 , NPY , AGRP , POMC , Leptin, GH , GHR , IGF-1 , CAA , GPR , ACC , CPT1 , FAS , and CART in the brain, liver, and meat tissues of different rabbit breeds. The breed genotype had a significant impact on litter size (LS), litter weight (LW), body weight at 12 weeks (BW12), and daily weight gain (DWG) traits. NZW rabbits displayed superior performance in terms of litter size and litter weight, while CAL rabbits recorded the highest values for BW12 and DWG. Heritability estimates (h 2 ) were generally low for litter size (ranging from 0.05 to 0.12) and medium for body weight (ranging from 0.16 to 0.31). Both genetic (r g ) and phenotypic (r p ) correlations for litter size were positive and moderate (ranging from 0.08 to 0.48), while correlations for body weight ranged from 0.21 to 0.58. Additionally, CAL rabbits exhibited higher carcass traits compared to NZW and GA rabbits. In terms of breed-specific gene expression patterns, New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits displayed the highest expression levels of key genes related to energy metabolism ( TBC1D1 ), appetite regulation ( NPY , AGRP , POMC ), nutrient transport ( CAA ), and G protein-coupled receptors ( GPR ) in both brain and liver tissues. Californian (CAL ) rabbits exhibited superior gene expression of the ACC gene in brain tissue and GH , GHR , and IGF-1 genes in brain and meat tissues. Gabali (GAB) rabbits demonstrated the highest expression levels of TBC1D1 , NPY , AGRP , GPR , and ACC genes in meat tissues. These breed-specific gene expression differences, combined with genetic evaluation efforts, have the potential to enhance reproductive and productive performance in rabbits, offering valuable insights for rabbit breeding programs and genetic selection.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0049-4747
1573-7438
1573-7438
DOI:10.1007/s11250-024-04082-z