Fig. 3

Correlation matrices of the transcript level of the 16 DEGs between diets and the phenotypic traits of the ducklings. The correlation matrices were plotted for the R group (n = 18), the C group (n = 17), and the males (n = 19) and the female ducklings (n = 16). Phenotypic traits are liver weight, percentages of liver lipids and liver dry mater (DM), plasma activities of ALP, ALT and AST, plasma cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride and free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations. The values used for the 16 DEGs were the imputed normalized expression and the values for the phenotypic data were the raw values. The color scale indicates the strength of the correlation; blue for a positive correlation and red for a negative one. Only the significant correlations (with a P-value < 0.05) were plotted