ANALYSIS OF SELECTED POLYMORPHISMS FOUND WITHIN GENES INVOLVED IN BONE METABOLISM SIGNALING PATHWAYS WITH MORPHOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF BONE TISSUE IN BROILERS

Abstract

The constant improvement of genetic tools, mainly due to the influence of genetic selection, leads to a permanent increase in the growth rate of commercial broiler chickens. The result is animals that reach market weight in a relatively short time. However, this often affects the health of the limbs, when such rapid growth is associated with skeletal disorders, when ideal bone development does not occur due to the rapid increase in body weight. While the time it takes to gain slaughter, weight has steadily decreased over the past few years, the time it takes for healthy bone development remains more or less the same. Therefore, studies carried out from the point of view of a better understanding
of a relatively little-explored area such as the genetic architecture of bones, can bring insights that can be used in poultry breeding. One of the relatively important signaling pathways for bone metabolism is the RANK/RANKL/OPG and Wnt pathways. Our study is focused on the search for polymorphisms within selected genes (TNFRSF11A and WISP1) of these pathways that might show associations with the traits we are monitoring. Testing was done on 43 broilers, namely fast-growing Ross 308, Cobb 500, and slow-growing Hubbard M22BxJA87A broilers. A total of thirteen polymorphisms were found, three of which were synonymous and five in an intron. Among the found polymorphisms, no one showed associations with the traits we were monitoring.