Transcriptome Analysis of the Molecular Mechanisms for Improving Yolk Lipids Composition of Shan Partridge Ducks by Dietary Fish Oil or Flaxseed Oil

Several studies showed that dietary fish oil and flaxseed oil reduce cholesterol content and increase ?-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) content in poultry yolks. However, genes specifically controlling these processes remain elusive. In this study, healthy ducks during the laying peak were randomly assigned to 3 groups supplied with a basal diet (C), a basal diet plus 2% flaxseed oil (FL), and a basal diet plus 2% fish oil (F), respectively. After 4 weeks, we measured cholesterol and n-3 PUFAs in egg yolks, and prepared a digital gene expression (DGE) profiling analysis of duck livers based on integrated de novo transcriptome assembly.