Fuente: PubMed "meat" Poult Sci. 2026 Mar 14;105(6):106802. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2026.106802. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTInosine monophosphate (IMP) is a key umami-related nucleotide that contributes substantially to chicken meat flavor. This study aimed to elucidate the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying individual variation in breast muscle IMP content in Beijing-You chicken through integrative transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis. A total of 73 male Beijing-You chickens at 135 days of age were phenotyped for IMP content in breast muscle. For extreme phenotype comparisons, 10 individuals with the highest IMP contents and 10 individuals with the lowest IMP contents were defined as the high-IMP and low-IMP groups, respectively. Transcriptomic and metabolomic datasets were generated from all 73 samples, and integrated using correlation analysis, Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA), and machine learning models. Whereas extreme-group comparisons were used for PCA, differential analysis. IMP content showed moderate phenotypic variability within the population. Transcriptome analysis integrating elastic net regression, support vector machine (SVM) modeling, and differential expression analysis identified 22 high-confidence genes associated with IMP content, which were significantly enriched in various pathways, including purine metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, and nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism. Metabolomic integration combining WGCNA, differential analysis, and correlation analysis identified 14 key metabolites negatively correlated with IMP content, primarily enriched in purine metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and the ABC transporter pathway. Integrated multi-omics analysis highlighted cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase 1A-like (C5NT1AL), which was co-enriched with inosine, hypoxanthine, and guanosine within the purine metabolism pathway. These results suggest that C5NT1AL potentially regulates IMP deposition in chicken breast muscle through regulation of IMP dephosphorylation and downstream purine metabolic flux. This study identified C5NT1AL as a promising candidate gene influencing umami-related nucleotide metabolism and provides molecular insight into the genetic improvement of chicken meat flavor quality.PMID:41905064 | DOI:10.1016/j.psj.2026.106802