Epigenetics

Tissue-Specific and Coordinated Allele-Specific Epigenomic Regulation in Chickens

---

Abstract

Most complex traits-associated variants reside in noncoding regions and often exhibit tissue-specific regulatory effects, which have led to challenges including the identification of causal variants underlying complex traits in chickens. Here, we constructed a multi-tissue atlas of allele-specific (AS) regulatory effects to investigate how cis-regulatory variation shapes gene regulation and complex traits in chickens. We profiled allele-specific chromatin and transcriptional regulation across 22 chicken tissues from F1 individuals derived from two highly inbred lines. Widespread AS regulatory activity was observed, with most AS events showing high tissue specificity. AS effects on gene expression were coordinated with AS effects in active chromatin marks. Integration with trait-associated loci further highlighted putative regulatory variants near disease-relevant genes. Together, this study provides a resource of allele-specific regulatory variation and highlights the value of epigenomic AS signals for interpreting noncoding variants underlying complex traits in chickens.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Bruscadin, J., Fang, L., Guan, D., Prowse-Wilkins, C., Wang, Y., Wolc, A., Yang, W. & Zhou, H., (2026) “Tissue-Specific and Coordinated Allele-Specific Epigenomic Regulation in Chickens”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2292387. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24307

Rights: 1