Chicken muscle mitochondrial content appears co-ordinately regulated and is associated with performance phenotypes

Abstract

Mitochondrial content is a fundamental cellular bioenergetic phenotype. Previous work has hypothesised possible links between variation in muscle mitochondrial content and animal performance. However, no population screens have been performed in any production species. Here, we have designed a high throughput molecular approach to estimate mitochondrial content in commercial broilers. Technical validity was established using several approaches, including its performance in monoclonal DF-1 cells, cross-tissue comparisons in tissues with differing metabolic demands (white fat <0.0001), consistent with coordinate regulatory control across the musculature. Further, breast muscle mitochondrial content is negatively correlated with breast muscle yield (-0.27; P=0.037), abdominal fat content (-0.31; P=0.017) and carcass yield (-0.26; P=0.045). Therefore, low breast muscle mitochondrial content is associated with more muscular birds possessing higher abdominal fat, the latter being in line with biomedical models of obesity. Finally, thigh mitochondrial content is negatively correlated with the bow out leg defect (-0.30; P=0.011). Overall, our data point to mitochondrial content as a promising consideration in predictive modelling of production traits.