Following the publication in Metabolomics of the first chicken metabolome atlas in October, we are proud that our work was selected to be on the front cover of the December issue.

The picture was constructed to show the 12 biological matrices investigated (liver, kidney, brain, muscle, spleen, plasma, ileum, colon, caecum, faecal water, egg yolk and egg white), each represented by one of its prominent metabolites. In the centre are displayed the 8 core metabolites, all amino acids (alanine, glutamate, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, proline, tyrosine and valine) that were systematically identified in all studied matrices.

When comparing all metabolic profiles to each other, we found out that the main source of variation was due to microbial metabolism, followed by energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism. This highlights the importance of considering the gut microbial metabolic activity in chicken studies.