Fig. 2

DEGs involved in the regulation of hormonal level. Relative transcript abundance of genes evaluated in the hypothalamus of broilers characterised high (high GR) and low growth rate (low GR) (a) and the relationship of genes coding protein involved in the hormonal regulation up-regulated in 3-week-old low growth rate (LGR) cockerels (b) and up-regulated in 6-week-old LGR cockerels (c). The efficiency of PCR reactions was estimated based on the standard curve method. The gene expression levels were calculated using the delta-delta CT method [20], and the significant differences in gene expression levels between HGR and LGR individuals within each age group were determined by ANOVA (Duncan’s post hoc test; SAS Enterprise v. 7.1 with default settings; SAS Institute, Cary, USA)