MOLECULAR BIOMARKERS FOR EARLY-POST HATCH STRESS AND FEEDING BEHAVIOR IN CHICKENS

The goals of this project are to identify biomarkers of stress and appetite in chickens and practical strategies to prevent or mitigate effects of environmental stressors on feeding behavior and well-being, using chickens from lines that were selected for low (LWS) or high (HWS) juvenile body weight.The objectives are as follows:1. Use RNA sequencing to elucidate the hypothalamic molecular mechanisms through which stressor exposure regulates appetite in chickens.2. Using methylation sequencing, determine whether stressor-induced and line-specific differences in hypothalamic nucleus gene expression are associated with changes in DNA methylation3. Evaluate how administering methyl donors or DNA methylation inhibitors prior to stressor exposure influences epigenetic regulation and expression of genes identified in Aims 1 and 2, and feeding behavior in chickens