Table 5.

Correlation coefficients for ileal morphology and gene expression, and broiler final BW, pectoralis major muscle weight, morphology, and gene expression¹.

	Final BW	Pectoralis major muscle weight	Pectoralis major muscle fiber width	Morphology score2	COL4A13
Villus height
Pearson	0.32	0.22	0.24	−0.16	−0.13
P-value4	<0.01	0.03	0.02	0.12	0.21
Villus/crypt5
Pearson	0.30	0.23	0.28	−0.19	−0.10
P-value	<0.01	0.02	0.01	0.06	0.35
Surface area
Pearson	0.28	0.22	0.27	−0.15	−0.01
P-value	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.15	0.96
IEL6
Pearson	0.08	0.07	0.17	−0.21	−0.21
P-value	0.46	0.50	0.10	0.04	0.05
COL4A1
Pearson	−0.16	−0.19	0.23	0.02	−0.14
P-value	0.12	0.07	0.02	0.84	0.17
HSPB77
Pearson	−0.21	−0.20	0.02	0.17	−0.23
P-value	0.04	0.05	0.86	0.09	0.02
MUC28
Pearson	0.04	0.02	0.20	0.21	0.10
P-value	0.72	0.86	0.05	0.04	0.34

¹Pearson correlation coefficient for ileal morphology and differentially expressed genes (in rows) and pectoralis major muscle (pectoralis major muscle; breast muscle) weight, morphology, and differentially expression genes (in columns). The broiler final BW and pectoralis major muscle weight from the study by Wang et al. (2020b) and pectoralis major muscle morphology and gene expression from the study Wang et al. (2020a) were used for correlation coefficients analysis with ileal morphology and gene expression. The BW, pectoralis major muscle weight, morphology and gene expression were obtained from the same broilers with the present study.

²Scoring scale of 1 to five was used for pectoralis major muscle morphology evaluation. Samples with limited or no perimysial or endomysial connective tissue space, and excessive myofiber degradation were given a score of one. Samples with morphology score of five have ample perimysial and endomysial connective tissue spacing, and well-structured muscle fibers. Score of 2 to 4 are intermediate.

³COL4A1 = Collagen type 4 alpha 1 chain.

⁴P-value for each Pearson correlation coefficient.

⁵Villus/crypt = Ratio of villus height to crypt depth.

⁶IEL = Number of intraepithelial lymphocytes per 100 epithelial cells.

⁷HSPB7 = Heat-shock protein family B member 7.

⁸MUC2 = Mucin 2, oligomeric mucus/gel-forming.