Qiqi Zhou , Shiqiang Huang

Tropical Animal Medicine Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572000, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Biological Evidence, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 5   
Received: 18 Jul., 2025    Accepted: 23 Aug., 2025    Published: 08 Sep., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study mainly aims to analyze the evolutionary differences between chickens and wild chickens. We focus on the morphological, physiological, behavioral and genetic changes during the domestication process. Some commonly used tools in research include whole-genome SNPS, mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites, etc. These can help us observe the differentiation and gene exchange between domestic chickens and wild free-range chickens. It was found that domestic chickens exhibited distinct domesticated characteristics in terms of body size, feather color, breeding season, metabolism and response to humans. These changes are closely related to some key genes, such as TSHR, BCO2 and IGF1. In addition, the genes of domestic chickens are also mixed with components from other wild species such as the grey pheasant, making their genetic background more diverse. Phylogenetic analysis also indicates that the domestication and spread of domestic chickens were not accomplished in one go, but rather involved multiple origins and complex gene exchanges, which is why there are significant differences among domestic chicken breeds in different regions. The purpose of this review is to better understand the mechanism and genetic basis of domestic chicken domestication, and also to provide some references for poultry breeding and conservation.

Domestication of domestic chickens; Phylogenetic markers; Evolutionary traits; Genomic selection; Genetic diversity