Hong Li received her PhD from Henan Agricultural University, China in 2016. She has been working on nutritional regulation, genetics and breeding, molecular biology and genomics of poultry since she was studied for her first degree in 2006. Currently, her main research interest has been to identify genetic variations, epigenetic and transcriptional regulation factors influencing growth, meat quality and reproduction in poultry.
In chickens, more than 90% of the de novo synthesis of fatty acids occurs in the liver; therefore, the liver metabolism has a critical effect on chicken development and egg laying performance. Although the physiological processes of liver lipid metabolism have been studied extensively in chicken, the underlying mechanisms and the roles of noncoding RNAs in the process remain ambiguous. Recently, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of hepatic lipid in chicken by new generation sequencing technology. Our results uncovered many genes, which play crucial roles in mammal lipid metabolism process, might have different biological functions in chicken. Some other genes which might play essential roles in chicken hepatic lipid metabolism were found. In addition, the physiological processes of hepatic lipid metabolism in chicken are regulated by noncoding RNAs, such as miRNAs and lncRNAs.
Part of the book: Poultry Science
In chicken, egg production performance is a key trait to the production performance of chickens. Currently, low egg production performance is the major bottleneck, which restraints the development of indigenous chicken industry and blocks the cultivation of new chicken breeds. It has always been the focus of animal genetic breeding in detecting and studying the formation mechanism of complex traits. Due to the egg production is a complex trait determined by multiple genes, and regulated by heredity, environment, and the interaction between them, the mechanism regulating egg-laying performance is yet unknown due to its complexity. With the recent progresses of omics techniques, related researches on it have achieved considerable progress, making it possible to elucidate the molecular mechanism of egg-laying trait now. This article will provide an overall review about the recent research progress in genetic regulation of egg-laying performance in poultry through high-throughput sequencing technology.
Part of the book: Application of Genetics and Genomics in Poultry Science