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Yu H, Raza SHA, Pan Y, Cheng G, Mei C, Zan L. Integrative Analysis of Blood Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Reveals Molecular Regulation of Backfat Thickness in Qinchuan Cattle. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:ani13061060. [PMID: 36978600 PMCID: PMC10044415 DOI: 10.3390/ani13061060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Revised: 03/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023] Open
Abstract
A crucial goal of reducing backfat thickness (BFT) is to indirectly improve feed conversion efficiency. This phenotype has been reported in certain papers; however, the molecular mechanism has yet to be fully revealed. Two extreme BFT groups, consisting of four Qinchuan cattle, were chosen for this study. We performed metabolite and transcriptome analyses of blood from cattle with a high BFT (H-BFT with average = 1.19) and from those with a low BFT (L-BFT with average = 0.39). In total, 1106 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 86 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) were identified in the extreme trait. In addition, serum ceramide was strongly correlated with BFT and could be used as a potential biomarker. Moreover, the most notable finding was that the functional genes (SMPD3 and CERS1) and metabolite (sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P)) were filtered out and significantly enriched in the processes related to the sphingolipid metabolism. This investigation contributed to a better understanding of the subcutaneous fat depots in cattle. In general, our results indicated that the sphingolipid metabolism, involving major metabolites (serum ceramide and S1P) and key genes (SMPD3 and CERS1), could regulate BFT through blood circulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hengwei Yu
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China; (H.Y.); (S.H.A.R.)
| | - Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China; (H.Y.); (S.H.A.R.)
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Quality and Safety/Nation-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Machining and Safety of Livestock and Poultry Products, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
| | - Yueting Pan
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China; (H.Y.); (S.H.A.R.)
| | - Gong Cheng
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China; (H.Y.); (S.H.A.R.)
| | - Chugang Mei
- College of Grassland Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
- National Beef Cattle Improvement Center, Xianyang 712100, China
| | - Linsen Zan
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China; (H.Y.); (S.H.A.R.)
- National Beef Cattle Improvement Center, Xianyang 712100, China
- Correspondence:
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Zmijewska A, Czelejewska W, Drzewiecka EM, Franczak A. Transcriptome profile of the anterior pituitary gland in pigs during maternal recognition of pregnancy. Theriogenology 2023; 197:310-321. [PMID: 36542881 DOI: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2022.11.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
The activity of the pituitary gland determines the success of female reproduction. The knowledge regarding the reproductive-status-related changes in the transcriptome of the porcine pituitary is limited. This study aimed to determine and compare the transcriptome profile of the pituitary gland collected from pigs during maternal recognition of pregnancy, i.e. on days 12-13 of pregnancy and during the respective days of the estrous cycle. Analysis indicated 482 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with an FC > 1.5 (P < 0.05) in the pituitary of pregnant vs. estrous-cyclic pigs. Among them, 68 were up-regulated and 414 were down-regulated. The evaluated DEGs were annotated into 39 gene ontology (GO) biological process terms, 13 GO cellular component terms, and 10 GO molecular function terms. Among the evaluated DEGs were selected genes coding for proteins potentially involved in the regulation of early pregnancy in pigs and used for gene interaction analysis and validation of microarray results. An analysis of the relationships among DEGs in pituitaries collected during maternal recognition of pregnancy showed that some of them are connected with, for example, TGFβ signaling pathway, PRL synthesis, adipocytokines pathway and immune response during maternal recognition of pregnancy. These findings expand the knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms appearing in the porcine pituitary during the maternal recognition period of pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agata Zmijewska
- Department of Animal Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowski 1A, 10-719, Olsztyn, Poland.
| | - Wioleta Czelejewska
- Department of Human Histology and Embryology, School of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Warszawska 30, 10-082, Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Ewa M Drzewiecka
- Department of Animal Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowski 1A, 10-719, Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Anita Franczak
- Department of Animal Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowski 1A, 10-719, Olsztyn, Poland
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Messad F, Louveau I, Renaudeau D, Gilbert H, Gondret F. Analysis of merged whole blood transcriptomic datasets to identify circulating molecular biomarkers of feed efficiency in growing pigs. BMC Genomics 2021; 22:501. [PMID: 34217223 PMCID: PMC8254903 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-021-07843-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Improving feed efficiency (FE) is an important goal due to its economic and environmental significance for farm animal production. The FE phenotype is complex and based on the measurements of the individual feed consumption and average daily gain during a test period, which is costly and time-consuming. The identification of reliable predictors of FE is a strategy to reduce phenotyping efforts. Results Gene expression data of the whole blood from three independent experiments were combined and analyzed by machine learning algorithms to propose molecular biomarkers of FE traits in growing pigs. These datasets included Large White pigs from two lines divergently selected for residual feed intake (RFI), a measure of net FE, and in which individual feed conversion ratio (FCR) and blood microarray data were available. Merging the three datasets allowed considering FCR values (Mean = 2.85; Min = 1.92; Max = 5.00) for a total of n = 148 pigs, with a large range of body weight (15 to 115 kg) and different test period duration (2 to 9 weeks). Random forest (RF) and gradient tree boosting (GTB) were applied on the whole blood transcripts (26,687 annotated molecular probes) to identify the most important variables for binary classification on RFI groups and a quantitative prediction of FCR, respectively. The dataset was split into learning (n = 74) and validation sets (n = 74). With iterative steps for variable selection, about three hundred’s (328 to 391) molecular probes participating in various biological pathways, were identified as important predictors of RFI or FCR. With the GTB algorithm, simpler models were proposed combining 34 expressed unique genes to classify pigs into RFI groups (100% of success), and 25 expressed unique genes to predict FCR values (R2 = 0.80, RMSE = 8%). The accuracy performance of RF models was slightly lower in classification and markedly lower in regression. Conclusion From small subsets of genes expressed in the whole blood, it is possible to predict the binary class and the individual value of feed efficiency. These predictive models offer good perspectives to identify animals with higher feed efficiency in precision farming applications. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-021-07843-4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farouk Messad
- PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint-Gilles, France
| | | | | | - Hélène Gilbert
- GenPhySE, INRAE, INP-ENVT, 31326, Castanet Tolosan, France
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Wu W, Wu H, He M, Zhang L, Huang Y, Geng Y, Liu J, Wang Q, Fan Z, Hou R, Yue B, Zhang X. Transcriptome analyses provide insights into maternal immune changes at several critical phases of giant panda reproduction. DEVELOPMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE IMMUNOLOGY 2020; 110:103699. [PMID: 32344048 DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2020.103699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2019] [Revised: 04/06/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) possess highly specialized reproductive characteristics, but the maternal immune changes during reproduction are largely unclear. Here, 20 blood transcriptomes were used to determine immune changes at four key phases of giant panda reproduction, and a total of 4640 differential expression genes were identified. During estrus, six immune-related genes (TLR4, IL1B, SYK, SPI1, CD80, and ITK) were identified as hub genes. The up-regulation of the TLR family genes (TLR4, TLR5, TLR6, and TLR8) and inflammatory response related genes (IL1B) may reflect innate immune enhancement and local tissue remodeling events, while the up-regulation of SYK and SPI1, and the down-regulation of CD80 and ITK suggested that the enhanced humoral immunity and inhibited cellular immunity of female giant pandas during estrus. During early pregnancy, antigen presentation related genes and proinflammatory cytokine (IL1B) were down-regulated. This may indicate that partial immune functions were suppressed in early pregnancy to achieve immune tolerance, including reducing inflammatory to protect embryos. By the late pregnancy, the antiviral related genes were up-regulated to strengthen defenses against external pathogen infection. KLRK1, which acts as a primary activation receptor for NK cells, was down regulated in estrus and pregnancy, suggesting that the activities of NK cells were inhibited, and KLRK1 may play a key role in the regulation the activities of pbNK cells during reproduction of giant pandas. Our results showed that there was no significant immune change in lactating females (post-natal 2 months) compared to anestrus females. This is the first time to observe the immune changes of giant panda during the breeding period and our data is expected to provide valuable resources for further studies on reproductive immunology of giant pandas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Wu
- Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China.
| | - Honglin Wu
- China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Wolong, 623006, Sichuan, PR China
| | - Ming He
- China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Wolong, 623006, Sichuan, PR China
| | - Liang Zhang
- The Sichuan Key Laboratory for Conservation Biology of Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, 610081, PR China
| | - Yan Huang
- China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Wolong, 623006, Sichuan, PR China
| | - Yang Geng
- Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China
| | - Jinhua Liu
- Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China
| | - Qian Wang
- China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Wolong, 623006, Sichuan, PR China
| | - Zhenxin Fan
- Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China
| | - Rong Hou
- The Sichuan Key Laboratory for Conservation Biology of Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, 610081, PR China
| | - Bisong Yue
- Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China
| | - Xiuyue Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, PR China.
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