Varied hypoxia adaptation patterns of embryonic brain at different development stages between Tibetan and Dwarf laying chickens

Abstract Background Tibetan chickens (Gallus gallus; TBCs), an indigenous breed distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, are well adapted to the hypoxic environment. Currently, the molecular genetic basis of hypoxia adaptation in TBCs remains unclear. This study investigated hypoxia adaptation patterns of embryonic brain at different development stages by integrating analysis of the transcriptome with our previously published metabolome data in TBCs and Dwarf Laying Chickens (DLCs), a lowland chicken breed. Results During hypoxia, the results revealed that 1334, 578, and 417 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (|log2 fold change|>1, p-value