Project description:Pig breeds have different attitude to traits like growth rate, carcass composition and reproduction parameters as well as other traits. These traits considered as external traits or end phenotypes are the outcome of complex biological processes and interactions. The main goal of pig breeding programs and the basis for crossbreeding is finding a balance between these traits. In pig production, Large White and Duroc breeds are commonly used to optimise respectively fertility and growth ability and differ on several production traits, indeed the first breed as a high fertility characters whereas Duroc is used as terminal sire for her growth performance and good carcass quality traits. In this study, we have used a quantitative label-free LC-MS proteomics approach to characterise and compare the liver proteome of two heavy Italian pig breeds, Italian Duroc and Italian Large White to identify difference due to their different genetic background. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 703094.
Project description:In Poland, conducted for years porcine breeding works focused on improving meat content in the carcass without undertaken to accomplish the more effectiveness of fattening indicators that impact on feed efficiency. At present, feeding and feed conversion became important factors that are especially evident in the countries where the production of fattening pigs is conducted in large farms. In the present study, was attempted to indicate pituitary candidate genes depending on feed conversion ratio (FCR) in native Polish pig breed, Złotnicka White. The whole pituitary transcriptome was sequenced using next-generation sequencing technology. The obtained results show the differences in gene expression for pathways associated with hormonal regulation and also with Notch and Wnt signaling. Moreover, it was observed that worse FCR in Złotnicka pigs was associated with a higher fat level in a carcass and a significant higher level of prolactin expression in the pituitary.
Project description:Western commercial pig breeds have been intensively selected, resulting in a sizeable, rapid, and efficient accretion of muscle but a reduction in meat quality. When compared with Western commercial pig breeds, Chinese indigenous pig breeds exhibited slower growth rates and reduced lean meat content but superior perceived meat quality. To study the factors that determine meat quality, we examined piglets of one Western commercial breed (Yorkshire) and one Chinese indigenous breed (Wannanhua) and sequenced the longissimus dorsi muscle using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq). We analyzed their transcriptomes, focusing on identifying candidate genes that may influence porcine muscle growth, meat quality and adipose deposition. Gene ontology functional enrichment and pathway enrichment analyses identified differentially expressed genes primarily associated with glycolytic metabolism, biological processes of muscle development and signaling pathways related to fatty acid metabolism, growth and carcass traits. This finding suggests that the differentially expressed genes may play important roles in determining meat quality traits. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed the differential expression of twelve selected differentially expressed genes. This study identified a number of novel candidate genes for porcine meat quality and carcass traits that merit further investigation to elucidate the molecular mechanisms responsible for muscle growth and fat deposition.
Project description:In this study, we used correlation analysis of the expression profiles and carcass traits to produce a list of functional candidate genes under the assumption that genes with strong correlation between their expression values and drip belong to pathways or networks relevant for the control of the trait. Expression QTL analyses for transcripts showing trait dependent expression were done in order to identify genes which show trait associated expression. 207 crosbred pig were hybridized to Affymetrix Porcine Genome Arrays.
Project description:In this study, we used correlation analysis of the expression profiles and carcass traits to produce a list of functional candidate genes under the assumption that genes with strong correlation between their expression values and drip belong to pathways or networks relevant for the control of the trait. Expression QTL analyses for transcripts showing trait dependent expression were done in order to identify genes which show trait associated expression. Keywords: Corrrelation and association 150 crosbred pig were hybridized to Affymetrix Porcine Genome Arrays.
Project description:Pig induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSCs) have significant biomedical and agricultural applications. We analyzed the transcriptional profiles of pig iPSC lines derived from different labs using Affymetrix GeneChip Pig Genome Array and published microarray datasets of mouse and human iPSCs. Our results demonstrated that cell surface proteins of EpCAM (epithelial cells adhesion molecule) were significantly upregulated in complete fully reprogrammed pig iPSCs, but not in partially reprogrammed cells. EpCAM could be markers for evaluating pig cell reprogramming and selecting successful reprogramming. We analyzed gene expression levels of the six key developmental signaling pathways, including JAK-STAT, NOTCH, TGF-βb, WNT, MAPK and VEGF in pig, human and mouse iPSCs, respectively. The result demonstrates that the core transcriptional network to maintain pluripotency and self-renewal in pig are different from mouse and human. Pig iPSCs lacked expression of specific naïve state markers (e.g. Klf family genes Klf2/4/5, Tbx3), but expressed unregulated primed state markers (e.g. Otx2 and Fabp7). Dlk1-Dio3 domain was silenced in piPSCs as previously seen in mouse and human iPSCs, which explains rare success of generation of pig chimeric and cloned offspring. Our analyses decipher pig somatic cells undergoes reprogramming into a primed state and maintains its regulatory network with define feature with human iPSCs and mouse EpiSCs.