Project description:Reproduction, as a physiologically complex process, can significantly affect the development of the sheep industry. However, a lack of overall understanding to sheep fecundity has long blocked the progress in sheep breeding and husbandry. Herein, in present study, we aimed to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) from hypothalamus in sheep without FecB mutation in two comparison groups: polytocous (PF) versus (vs.) monotocous (MF) sheep at follicular phase and polytocous (PL) vs. monotocous (ML) sheep at luteal phase,expecting to provide an alternative method to identify DEPs associated with sheep prolificacy from the hypothalamus.
Project description:Developmental programming is the concept that environmental factors, particularly during foetal life, can alter development, metabolism and physiology of an organism and this can have consequences later in life. There is growing interest in developmental programming in livestock species, particularly effects of maternal pregnancy nutrition, which is easy to manipulate. Recent research, using a sheep model, has shown that milk production in ewe offspring may be susceptible to maternal nutritional programming, such that over nutrition (ad libitum) of the pregnant dam, compared with maintenance nutrition, may impair their first lactation performance and result in the weaning of lighter lambs. RNA-seq was performed to identify gene expression differences as a result of maternal nutrition in ewe offspring during their first parity. Samples were collected in late pregnancy and during lactation, allowing us to examine gene expression changes during maturation of the ovine mammary gland.
Project description:Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections are considered the most important disease of grazing sheep. Due to increasing anthelmintic resistance, chemical control alone is inadequate. Resistance to GIN infection is a heritable trait, and through natural selection many sheep breeds have higher resistance. Studying the transcriptome from GIN-exposed and GIN-unexposed sheep using RNA-Sequencing technology can provide measurements of transcript levels associated with the host response to GIN infection, and these transcripts may harbor genetic markers that can be used in selective breeding programs to enhance disease resistance. The objective of this study was to compare liver transcriptomes of sheep naturally exposed to GINs, with either high or low parasite burdens, to GIN-unexposed control sheep in order to identify key regulator genes and biological processes associated with GIN infection. Differential gene expression analysis revealed no significant differentially expressed genes (DEG) between sheep with a high or low parasite burden (P-value ≤ 0.01; False Discovery Rate (FDR) ≤ 0.05; and Fold-Change (FC) of > 2). However, when compared to the control group, low parasite burden sheep showed 159 DEG, and high parasite burden sheep showed 146 DEG (P-value ≤ 0.01; FDR ≤ 0.05; and FC of > 2). Among these two lists of significant DEG, 86 DEG were found in common between the two parasite burden groups compared to the control (GIN-unexposed sheep). Functional analysis of these significant 86 DEG found upregulated genes involved in immune response and downregulated genes involved in lipid metabolism. Results of this study offer insight into the liver transcriptome during natural GIN exposure that helps provide a better understanding of the key regulator genes involved in GIN infection in sheep.
Project description:Developmental programming is the concept that environmental factors, particularly during foetal life, can alter development, metabolism and physiology of an organism and this can have consequences later in life. There is growing interest in developmental programming in livestock species, particularly effects of maternal pregnancy nutrition, which is easy to manipulate. Recent research, using a sheep model, has shown that milk production in ewe offspring may be susceptible to maternal nutritional programming, such that over nutrition (ad libitum) of the pregnant dam, compared with maintenance nutrition, may impair their first lactation performance and result in the weaning of lighter lambs. RNA-seq was performed to identify gene expression differences as a result of maternal nutrition in ewe offspring during their first parity. Samples were collected in late pregnancy and during lactation, allowing us to examine gene expression changes during maturation of the ovine mammary gland. Three biological replicates were sequenced for each of the treatment conditions (maternal nutrition: sub-maintenance, maintenance, and ad libitum) and time points (late pregnancy and lactation). Each biological replicate consisted of RNA from multiple individuals (late pregnancy n=3, lactation n=2).
Project description:Aging animals undergo a variety of changes in molecular processes. Among these, the cellular circadian clock has been shown to change as animals age. Moreover, there is evidence that also core circadian clock proteins could influence the ageing behavior of vertebrates. To investigate the interplay between aging and the circadian clock, we studied circadian mRNA expression in skeletal muscles from young (8 weeks) and aged (80 weeks) mice. In order to detect differences in circadian patterns, we used microarray-based transcriptome-wide time series of mRNA expression, containing 16 independent measurements for both young and aged animals. Each individual time point consists of total RNA from hind limb skeletal muscles from 3 different animals. Young and aged mice where entrained to 12 hr/12 hr light-dark conditions. From these mice, hind limb skeletal muscles were extracted at different times of day, in order to measure circadian mRNA expression patterns.
Project description:We report the application of single-molecule-based sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of different ovine muscle's transcriptomes. 9.27 gigabases of sequence from two different breeds of sheep.
Project description:Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was used to measure the levels of gene transcription in perirenal adipose tissue in late gestation sheep fetuses (~ 2 weeks before birth). Through the discovery of SNP in the population, allele specific expression was identified.
Project description:We report the application of single-molecule-based sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of different ovine muscle's transcriptomes. 9.27 gigabases of sequence from two different breeds of sheep. Examination of 2 different muscle's transcriptomes in 2 breed types.