Dynamic transcriptome profiling reveals essential roles of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTK) family in feather development of duck

1. Chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs) are precursors that form muscle fibres. The proliferation and differentiation of CPMs is an essential stage in muscle development. Previous RNA-seq analysis showed that phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (<i>PHGDH</i>) is a differentially expressed gene in chicken muscle tissue at different growth stages. Therefore, the following study explored the effect of <i>PHGDH</i> on the proliferation and differentiation of CPMs. 2. The effect on the proliferation of CPMs by RT–qPCR, CCK-8, and EdU assays after the overexpression and knockdown of <i>PHGDH</i> was evaluated. RT–qPCR, western blotting, and indirect immunofluorescence were used to detect the effect of <i>PHGDH</i> on the differentiation of the CPMs. The expression was observed at different time points for differentiation induced by the CPMs. 3. The results showed that <i>PHGDH</i> significantly promoted proliferation and differentiation in CPMs. The results showed that overexpression of <i>PHGDH</i> significantly upregulated CPM proliferation, while knockdown had the opposite effect. Marker genes showed that overexpression of <i>PHGDH</i> significantly upregulated the expression of <i>P21, MYOG</i> and <i>MYOD</i> genes, significantly downregulated the expression of the <i>MSTN</i> gene and promoted the expression of the MYHC protein. In contrast, <i>PHGDH</i> knockdown had the opposite effect. 4. Desmin immunofluorescence analysis of myotube differentiation in primary myoblasts showed that overexpression of <i>PHGDH</i> significantly increased the area of myotube differentiation and promoted the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. Knockdown of <i>PHGDH</i> had the opposite effect. 5. In summary, <i>PHGDH</i> was shown to play a positive role in regulating myoblast proliferation and differentiation. This provided a theoretical basis for further analysis of the regulatory mechanism of the <i>PHGDH</i> gene in chicken muscle development and for improving poultry production.