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Abstract Background With crucial roles on the differentiation of anterior pituitary and the regulation of the prolactin (PRL), growth hormone (GH) and thyroid-stimulating hormone-β (TSH-β) genes, the chicken PIT1 gene is regarded as a key candidate gene for production traits. In this study, five reported polymorphisms (MR1-MR5) of the PIT1 gene were genotyped in a full sib F2 resource population to evaluate their effects on growth, carcass and fatty traits in chickens. Results Marker-trait association analyses showed that, MR1 was significantly associated with shank diameters (SD) at 84 days (P < 0.05), hatch weight (HW) and shank length (SL) at 84 days (P < 0.01), MR2 was significantly associated with BW at 28, 42 days and average daily gain (ADG) at 0–4 weeks (P < 0.05), and MR3 was significantly associated with ADG at 4–8 weeks (P < 0.05). MR4 was associated with SL at 63, 77, 84 days and BW at 84 days (P < 0.05), as well as SD at 77 days (P < 0.01). Significant association was also found of MR5 with BW at 21, 35 days and SD at 63 days (P < 0.05), BW at 28 days and ADG at 0–4 weeks (P < 0.01). Both T allele of MR4 and C allele of MR5 were advantageous for chicken growth. The PIT1 haplotypes were significantly associated with HW (P = 0.0252), BW at 28 days (P = 0.0390) and SD at 56 days (P = 0.0400). No significant association of single SNP and haplotypes with chicken carcass and fatty traits was found (P > 0.05). Conclusion Our study found that polymorphisms of PIT1 gene and their haplotypes were associated with chicken growth traits and not with carcass and fatty traits.

In the present work, excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) emission properties of a new benzotriazole derivative 4-formyl-2-(2 H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-phenol ( C1) were studied. 4-Formyl-2-(2 H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-methoxy-benzene ( C2), 4-formyl-2-(2 H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-phenyl acetate ( C3) and 4-methyl-2-(2 H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-phenol ( C4) were used as the reference molecules. H NMR chemical shift of hydroxy group in C1 was located at more down field than that of C4 or p-hydroxy-benzaldehyde ( C5), respectively. C1 showed two absorption bands in the range of 260-400 nm zones in various solvents, while C2 and C3 exhibited single absorption band. The equal molar mixtures of C2/C5 or C3/ C5 showed single absorption band. C2 and C3 displayed single fluorescence emission band in various solvents, while C1 exhibited dual emission bands in some strong polar solvents. Furthermore, the second emission band in these strong polar solvents showed the large Stokes shift. The results show that the second emission band of C1 was produced by ESIPT. C2 and C3 could not undergo ESIPT due to no hydroxy group. The geometry optimization calculation of enol and keto forms in the ground and excited states of C1 provided tough theoretical evidences of ESIPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]