Integrative omics analysis elucidates the role of ANKRD9 in modulating chicken primary myoblast IMP metabolism via the purine metabolic pathway
With the continuous improvement of human dietary structure, the demand for high-quality chicken meat is steadily increasing. It is therefore crucial for breeders to enhance meat quality while maintaining muscle yield in broilers. Inosine monophosphate (IMP) is a key compound influencing meat flavour and quality. In this study, we used the Chinese local breed Gushi chicken breed as the research model and observed dynamic expression changes of the ankyrin repeat domain 9 (ANKRD9) gene in breast muscle tissues. By integrating transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses, we systematically investigated the role of ANKRD9 in chicken primary myoblasts. Our findings indicate that ANKRD9 may affect cell adhesion and IMP metabolism through regulation of the purine metabolic pathway. Further cellular experiments confirmed that ANKRD9 inhibits IMP metabolism in myoblasts. These results highlight the critical role of ANKRD9 in regulating IMP, a key flavour-related metabolite, and provide a potential molecular target and theoretical foundation for the breeding of high-quality broilers. Overall design: RNA-seq expression profile of ANKRD9 overexpression and pcDNA3.1 in chicken primary myoblasts