{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T09:24:16Z","timestamp":1787304256151,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2023YFD1300804-2"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFD1300804-2"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study evaluated dietary sterol-rich yeast hydrolysate (SYH) at 0, 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 g\/kg in 720 yellow-feathered broiler breeder hens for 6 weeks. The tested SYH, supplied as a powder, contained 9.24% mannan, 3.1% total sterols, 2.0% amino nitrogen, and 3.64 g\/kg nucleotides. Serum lipoproteins, intestinal morphology, digestive enzyme activities, barrier-related gene expression, and cecal microbiota were assessed. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was higher in J-C than in Control, J-A, and J-B, whereas high-density lipoprotein cholesterol did not differ among treatments. Duodenal lipase showed a significant overall treatment effect, but no Dunn\u2013Holm pairwise comparison remained significant; ileal lipase was higher in J-C than in J-A. For barrier-related transcripts, J-A had higher ZO-1 than the Control and J-B and higher occludin and claudin-1 than all other groups, whereas MUC2 was higher in J-A and J-C than in the Control. These transcript changes are consistent with the modulation of molecular components associated with intestinal barrier integrity, but they do not by themselves demonstrate improved barrier function. Intestinal morphology showed selective, segment-specific differences rather than a consistent dose-related pattern. Alpha diversity did not differ, whereas Bray\u2013Curtis PERMANOVA detected an overall difference among treatments (p = 0.017) despite overlapping PCoA distributions. Pairwise differential-abundance analysis using metagenomeSeq identified six family- or genus-level differences after false-discovery-rate correction, but these were specific to individual pairwise comparisons and showed no monotonic dose pattern. No exploratory microbiota\u2013phenotype correlation remained significant after multiple-testing correction. Overall, SYH elicited inclusion-level- and trait-specific responses rather than a coordinated improvement across endpoints; therefore, the present data do not identify a single optimal inclusion level.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16162620","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T08:14:01Z","timestamp":1787300041000},"page":"2620","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of Dietary Sterol-Rich Yeast Hydrolysate on Serum Lipid Indices, Intestinal Morphology, Digestive Enzyme Activities, Barrier-Related Gene Expression, and Cecal Microbiota in Yellow-Feathered Broiler Breeder Hens"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-7572-9233","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yining","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, No. 311 Nongda East Road, Urumqi 830052, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7122-6523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhifang","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"},{"name":"Henan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Farming and Intelligent Equipment, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengyun","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haoran","family":"Si","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, No. 311 Nongda East Road, Urumqi 830052, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-2619-2090","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bo","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, No. 311 Nongda East Road, Urumqi 830052, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuanyang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongzhen","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaotong","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Xi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, No. 311 Nongda East Road, Urumqi 830052, China"},{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"},{"name":"Henan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Farming and Intelligent Equipment, No. 6 Longzihu North Road, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"858","DOI":"10.5713\/ab.21.0374","article-title":"Effects of yeast hydrolysate supplementation on intestinal morphology, barrier, and anti-inflammatory functions of broilers","volume":"35","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Anim. Biosci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102237","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2022.102237","article-title":"Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae hydrolysate on growth performance, immunity function, and intestinal health in broilers","volume":"102","author":"Lin","year":"2023","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2026","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2019.11.017","article-title":"Yeast culture promotes the production of aged laying hens by improving intestinal digestive enzyme activities and the intestinal health status","volume":"99","author":"Zhang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3837","DOI":"10.3382\/ps\/pey268","article-title":"Effects of dietary yeast nucleotides supplementation on intestinal barrier function, intestinal microbiota, and humoral immunity in specific pathogen-free chickens","volume":"97","author":"Wu","year":"2018","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102660","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2023.102660","article-title":"Dietary yeast cell wall enhanced intestinal health of broiler chickens by modulating intestinal integrity, immune responses, and microbiota","volume":"102","author":"Kyoung","year":"2023","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"771","DOI":"10.1080\/00071668.2021.1929070","article-title":"Effect of yeast cell wall supplementation on intestinal integrity, digestive enzyme activity and immune traits of broilers","volume":"62","author":"McCaffrey","year":"2021","journal-title":"Br. Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Comi, M., Lanzoni, D., Perricone, V., Jiang, X.-R., Lin, J., and Zhang, H.-J. (2025). Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae hydrolysate on broiler performance and gut health. Animals, 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/ani15172531"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"492","DOI":"10.1080\/09712119.2020.1825446","article-title":"Egg production, egg quality, nutrient digestibility, and excreta microflora of laying hens fed with a diet containing brewer\u2019s yeast hydrolysate","volume":"48","author":"Park","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Appl. Anim. Res."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1695","DOI":"10.1002\/jsfa.4004","article-title":"Effects of dietary yeast autolysate (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on performance, egg traits, egg cholesterol content, egg yolk fatty acid composition and humoral immune response of laying hens","volume":"90","author":"Eltan","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Sci. Food Agric."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101096","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2021.101096","article-title":"Effects of phytosterol supplementation on growth performance, serum lipid, proinflammatory cytokines, intestinal morphology, and meat quality of white feather broilers","volume":"100","author":"Ding","year":"2021","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wu, W., Ma, X., Chen, R., Fan, J., Ye, W., Chen, Z., Huang, Q., and Qian, L. (2024). Effects of phytosterol ester supplementation on egg characteristics, eggshell ultrastructure, antioxidant capacity, liver function and hepatic metabolites of laying hens during peak laying period. Antioxidants, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/antiox13040458"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e70517","DOI":"10.1002\/vms3.70517","article-title":"Effects of dietary supplementation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast extract on production performance in aged commercial laying hens","volume":"11","author":"Hassanabadi","year":"2025","journal-title":"Vet. Med. Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Perricone, V., Sandrini, S., Irshad, N., Savoini, G., Comi, M., and Agazzi, A. (2022). Yeast-derived products: The role of hydrolyzed yeast and yeast culture in poultry nutrition\u2014A review. Animals, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/ani12111426"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1377","DOI":"10.3382\/ps.2007-00418","article-title":"Effects of yeast culture in broiler diets on performance and immunomodulatory functions","volume":"87","author":"Gao","year":"2008","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, Y., Cheng, X., Zhen, W., Zeng, D., Qu, L., Wang, Z., and Ning, Z. (2021). Yeast culture improves egg quality and reproductive performance of aged breeder layers by regulating gut microbes. Front. Microbiol., 12.","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2021.633276"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Luo, Q., Yang, L., Tumenjargal, B., Liu, S., Ma, J., Ning, J., Yun, Z., Zhang, X., Wu, Y., and Lu, Y. (2024). Effect of composite yeast culture on the jejunal barrier function, inflammatory response, and microbial community structure of laying hens during the late stage of egg production. Front. Vet. Sci., 11.","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2024.1524726"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104979","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2025.104979","article-title":"Dietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product improved egg quality by modulating intestinal health, ovarian function, and cecal microbiota in post-peak laying hens","volume":"104","author":"Gong","year":"2025","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103383","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2023.103383","article-title":"Response of broiler breeder pullets when fed hydrolyzed whole yeast from placement to 22 wk of age","volume":"103","author":"Maina","year":"2024","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104826","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2025.104826","article-title":"Effects of lifetime feeding of hydrolyzed yeast to broiler breeders on egg production, quality, and hatchling attributes","volume":"104","author":"Maina","year":"2025","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1186\/s40104-023-00846-z","article-title":"Growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, cecal mucosal cytokines and serum antioxidant responses of broiler chickens to dietary enzymatically treated yeast and coccidia challenge","volume":"14","author":"Alagbe","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Anim. Sci. Biotechnol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Al-Abdullatif, A.A., Alhotan, R.A., Al-Badwi, M.A., Dong, X., Kettunen, H., Vuorenmaa, J., Sakr, S.A., and Azzam, M.M. (2024). Effects of hydrolyzed yeast on growth performance, intestinal redox homeostasis, and woody breast myopathy in heat-stressed broilers. Front. Vet. Sci., 11.","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2024.1484150"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kers, J.G., Velkers, F.C., Fischer, E.A.J., Hermes, G.D.A., Stegeman, J.A., and Smidt, H. (2018). Host and environmental factors affecting the intestinal microbiota in chickens. Front. Microbiol., 9.","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2018.00235"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1006","DOI":"10.3382\/ps\/pex359","article-title":"The gastrointestinal microbiome and its association with the control of pathogens in broiler chicken production: A review","volume":"97","author":"Clavijo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Poult. Sci."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rychlik, I. (2020). Composition and function of chicken gut microbiota. Animals, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/ani10010103"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1016\/j.csbj.2018.03.002","article-title":"Current perspectives of the chicken gastrointestinal tract and its microbiome","volume":"16","author":"Seifert","year":"2018","journal-title":"Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"(2018). Determination of Crude Protein in Feeds\u2014Kjeldahl Method (Standard No. GB\/T 6432-2018)."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"(2006). Determination of Crude Fat in Feeds (Standard No. GB\/T 6433-2006)."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"(2018). Determination of Calcium in Feeds (Standard No. GB\/T 6436-2018)."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"66","article-title":"Introduction of Tables of Feed Composition and Nutritive Values in China (2021 Thirty-Second Edition)","volume":"24","author":"Xiong","year":"2021","journal-title":"China Feed"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2957","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btr507","article-title":"FLASH: Fast length adjustment of short reads to improve genome assemblies","volume":"27","author":"Salzberg","year":"2011","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.14806\/ej.17.1.200","article-title":"Cutadapt removes adapter sequences from high-throughput sequencing reads","volume":"17","author":"Martin","year":"2011","journal-title":"EMBnet J."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"i884","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/bty560","article-title":"fastp: An ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor","volume":"34","author":"Chen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"581","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.3869","article-title":"DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data","volume":"13","author":"Callahan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"852","DOI":"10.1038\/s41587-019-0209-9","article-title":"Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2","volume":"37","author":"Bolyen","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. Biotechnol."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"D590","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gks1219","article-title":"The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: Improved data processing and web-based tools","volume":"41","author":"Quast","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nucleic Acids Res."},{"key":"ref_36","first-page":"32","article-title":"A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance","volume":"26","author":"Anderson","year":"2001","journal-title":"Austral. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"245","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1541-0420.2005.00440.x","article-title":"Distance-based tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions","volume":"62","author":"Anderson","year":"2006","journal-title":"Biometrics"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1200","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.2658","article-title":"Differential abundance analysis for microbial marker-gene surveys","volume":"10","author":"Paulson","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sergeant, M.J., Constantinidou, C., Cogan, T.A., Bedford, M.R., Penn, C.W., and Pallen, M.J. (2014). Extensive microbial and functional diversity within the chicken cecal microbiome. PLoS ONE, 9.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0091941"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5029","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-019-13036-1","article-title":"Evaluation of 16S rRNA gene sequencing for species- and strain-level microbiome analysis","volume":"10","author":"Johnson","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"342","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-022-28034-z","article-title":"Microbiome differential abundance methods produce different results across 38 datasets","volume":"13","author":"Nearing","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."}],"container-title":["Animals"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-2615\/16\/16\/2620\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T08:32:09Z","timestamp":1787301129000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-2615\/16\/16\/2620"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]},"references-count":41,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]}},"alternative-id":["ani16162620"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ani16162620","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-2615"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2076-2615","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]}}}