Study record
Characterization of the Avian Mitochondrial-Derived Peptide MOTS-c and Its Potential Role as a Metabolic Regulator
Shu X, Liu J, Xu B et al. · Animals (Basel) · 2025
What this study reported
Reported high sequence similarity between avian and mammalian MOTS-c coding regions alongside a single nucleotide deletion in avian sequences at the position corresponding to the fourth amino acid residue, producing divergent downstream sequence. Found that phylogenetic clustering of mRNA sequences grouped pigeons with mammals while protein sequences separated poultry from mammals, that chicken MOTS-c expression was widespread across tissues and highest in heart, and that fasting reduced heart MOTS-c expression. Reported enrichment of ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation, PI3K-AKT and JAK-STAT pathways and activation of AKT signalling in treated primary chicken hepatocytes.
Limitations
Descriptive first-characterisation study with no replication cohort; functional work rests on a single primary hepatocyte preparation and a single fasting challenge, and animal numbers, sex and replicate counts are not reported.
Study record
| Study model | Analytical / methods |
|---|---|
| Substance studied | SeveralMore than one of these is central to the paper (common for reviews). |
| Species | chicken, pigeon |
| System studied | Bioinformatic comparison of MOTS-c coding sequences across poultry species, with chicken tissue expression profiling and primary hepatocyte culture |
| Population | Not reported |
| Design | Sequence and phylogenetic analysis with cell culture experiments |
| Sample size as reported | not reported |
| Control group | untreated primary hepatocytes and fed (non-fasted) birds |
| Route (data field only) | in-culture |
| Endpoints measured | MOTS-c coding sequence conservation; phylogenetic clustering; tissue MOTS-c expression; heart MOTS-c expression with fasting; transcriptomic pathway enrichment; AKT phosphorylation |
| Pathways measured | AKT / mTOR / FOXO · Other |
| Research areas | Metabolic · Methods · Mitochondrial biology |
| Evidence tier | D — Cell, tissue or analytical |
| Publication types | Journal Article |
Appraisal
Each dimension is recorded separately and never combined into a single score. A study can be well controlled and still tell you little about people.
- Relevance to MOTS-c
- Direct
- Model applicability
- Non-mammalian
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Controls
- Limited
- Outcome validity
- Exploratory
- Support for its own conclusion
- Moderate
Provenance
- Bibliographic fields retrieved from PubMed E-utilities efetch (title, journal, date, authors, DOI) on 2026-11-11.
- Annotated from the published abstract.
- Editorial review: approved (2026-11-11).
- Classification follows the site methodology; the record describes the study, not what MOTS-c does in people.