Expression of umami receptors (T1R1/T1R3) in the intestine during the embryonic and post-hatch development in broiler chickens

Umami receptors T1R1/T1R3 can recognize protein breakdown products including amino acids and peptides. Our previous results demonstrated that umami receptors T1R1/T1R3 are widely expressed in both the oral cavity and intestine of broiler chickens and the jejunum has a higher expression level of umami receptors within the intestine. However, the gene expression of umami receptors T1R1/T1R3 in the intestine during the embryonic and post-hatch development in chickens is still unknown. This study was to investigate the gene expression of T1R1/T1R3 in the intestine during the late embryonic and post-hatch development in broiler chickens. A total of 15 fertilized broiler eggs and 20 healthy broilers were used in this study. The jejunum was collected from 3 embryonic broiler chickens at the embryonic day (E) 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. Four chickens were randomly sacrificed at 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, and 5 weeks, and duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon were collected. We found the T1R1/T1R3 mRNA abundance was detected in the jejunum at all stages of the late embryonic development. The jejunal T1R1/T1R3 mRNA abundance was increased with the ages during the late embryonic development in chickens. The expression of T1R1/T1R3 in the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon of chicks of different ages were varied. These results demonstrated that chicken umami receptors T1R1/T1R3 are expressed in the intestine of the late embryonic development and posthatch development and their expression levels may be affected by the ages of embryonic development and post-hatch development. However, the roles of chicken umami receptors T1R1/T1R3 in the intestine are still not clear. Further studies are needed to investigate potential ligands of chicken umami receptors and cell signaling pathways activated by potential umami substances. 

Keywords: chicken umami receptors T1R1/T1R3, gene expression, intestine, gut chemosensing, chickens.

Published in the proceedings of the Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada 2020. For information on the event, past and future editions, check out https://animalnutritionconference.ca/.