Approaches using genome-wide association studies and heat stress resistance related genes in chicken – a review

Heat stress-induced reduction in feed intake in an annoyance of the poultry industry. High environmental temperature is a serious stress affecting economic and biological efficiency of poultry production in tropical and subtropical regions countries that are expected to become more prominent with global climate change. An effective tool for improving heat tolerance can be genomic selection based on single nucleotide polymorphisms. In the past few years, new molecular tools have been developed, such as RNA-Seq, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), and bioinformatics approaches such as Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS). Based on these genetic tools, many studies have detected the main pathways involved in cellular response mechanisms. This study aims to present chicken genomic regions controlling survival against heat stress. Genetic studies conducted on experimental lines can therefore be of potential interest for marker-assisted selection in commercial lines. Also, survivability to high temperature might be due to the SNP markers that are located inside or close to the genes such as CEP78, MEF2C, VPS13A, ARRDC3, and which had relatively biological pathways in heat shock resistance.