{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T05:02:56Z","timestamp":1789534976693,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789344000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Excessive abdominal fat deposition reduces feed efficiency and edible carcass yield in chickens, yet its developmental and regional specialization remains poorly understood. We generated 93 bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) libraries from 15 fat-associated anatomical regions at embryonic day 16 (E16) and 16 regions at 2 weeks post-hatch (2w) in six Xinghua chickens. Exploratory single-nucleus RNA sequencing was additionally performed on abdominal region (AR) tissue from one individual at each stage. Repeated-measures-aware analysis identified developmental stage as the major source of transcriptomic variation, with 4556 genes expressed at higher levels at E16 and 4528 at 2w. E16-associated programs were enriched for proliferation, morphogenesis, and structural development, whereas postnatal programs were dominated by immune and stimulus-response processes. Stage-specific weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified substantial regional heterogeneity. AR showed stage-dependent signatures, including higher developmental and morphogenetic programs and lower lipid-metabolic programs at E16, and higher cell-cycle-related and lower developmental and fatty-acid-metabolic programs at 2w. Single-nucleus analysis identified adipose-lineage and multiple non-adipocyte populations, and cross-omics mapping showed that AR-associated signatures were distributed across multiple cellular compartments. These results suggest stage-dependent, multicellular transcriptional specialization of chicken AR tissue.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16182893","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T14:15:04Z","timestamp":1789395304000},"page":"2893","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Integrated Bulk and Single-Nucleus Transcriptomics Characterizes the Developmental and Regional Specialization of Chicken Abdominal Fat-Associated Tissue"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1502-4502","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siyu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Fujian Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qihong","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiali","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4403-9292","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhenhui","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1057","DOI":"10.5713\/ajas.2013.13702","article-title":"Nutritional Factors Affecting Abdominal Fat Deposition in Poultry: A Review","volume":"27","author":"Fouad","year":"2014","journal-title":"Asian Australas. 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