Mechanisms of hepatic steatosis in chickens: integrated analysis of the host genome, molecular phenomes and gut microbiome

Hepatic steatosis is the initial manifestation of abnormal liver functions and often leads to liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in humans and fatty liver syndrome in animals. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of a large chicken population consisting of 705 adult hens by combining host genome resequencing, liver transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analysis, as well as microbial 16S rRNA gene sequencing of each gut segment.