Project description:Improving the fertility of sheep is an important goal in sheep breeding as it greatly increases the productivity. Dolang sheep is a typical representative breed of lamb in Xinjiang and is the main local sheep breed and meat source in the region. To explore the genes associated with the initiation of puberty in Dolang sheep, the hypothalamic tissues of Dolang sheep prepubertal, pubertal, and postpubertal periods were collected for RNA-seq analysis on the Illumina platform.
Project description:Our objective was to investigate differences in gene expression between 24 parasite-resistant hair and 24 susceptible wool lambs to determine genetic mechanisms involved in resistance to H. contortus. Half of the animals of each breed were infected and sacrificed at 3 or 27 days post-infection; the remaining animals were uninfected controls. Breed differences in abomasum and abomasal lymph node tissue gene expression were assessed using bovine cDNA microarrays. Over 60 transcripts differed between breeds for each tissue and infection status. Genes differentially expressed between hair and wool sheep 3 days PI were assessed for gene function and mechanisms for greater immune cell infiltration, abomasal tissue repair, Th17 response, and anticoagulation were present in parasite-resistant hair sheep. By 27 days PI, hair sheep had greater expression of genes involved in gut motility, inflammatory cytokines, and cell proliferation and differentiation compared to wool sheep. Changes in these processes indicate Caribbean hair sheep have a stronger inflammatory response when infected with H. contortus which may facilitate the increased parasite resistance observed in these sheep.
Project description:Understanding the way in which the airway heals in response to injury is fundamental to dissecting the mechanisms underlying airway disease pathology. Only limited data is available in relation to in vivo characterisation of the molecular features of repair in the airway. This study sought to characterise the dynamic changes in gene expression that are associated with airway repair in response to physical injury. Gene expression changes in the airway wall following bronchial brush biopsy were profiled in anaesthetised sheep. The experimental design featured sequential studies in the same animals (n=8) over the course of a week and yielded data relating to the repair process at 6 hours, and 1, 3 and 7 days after injury. Notable features of the transcriptional response included the early and sustained preponderance of down-regulated genes associated with angiogenesis and immune cell activation, selection and differentiation. Later features of the repair response included the up-regulation of cell cycle genes at d1 and d3, and the later pronounced up-regulation of extracellular matrix-related genes at d3 and d7. It is possible to follow the process of airway wall repair in response to physical injury in the same animal over the course of time. Transcriptional changes featured coordinate expression of functionally related genes in a reproducible manner both within and between animals. This characterisation will provide a foundation against which to assess the perturbations that accompany airway disease pathologies of comparative relevance. Keywords: response to airway injury Each sheep was subjected to a protocol which involved the procedure of endobronchial brush biopsy (BBr) being performed, under anaesthesia, on three occasions, with two separate airway sites being subjected to brushing on each occasion. Two sheep were subjected to BBr seven days, three days and six hours prior to euthanasia, two sheep at seven days, three days and one day prior to euthanasia, two sheep at seven days, one day and six hours prior to euthanasia and two sheep at three days, one day and six hours prior to euthanasia. At post mortem examination (PME) each time point was therefore represented by material derived from six sheep. Airway tissue from a naM-CM-/ve site (from a segment not subjected to BBr) was also collected from each sheep at necropsy.
Project description:Follicular development is a highly coordinated process in Hu sheep. Follicle-cyclic recruitment, spatial displacement, follicle atresia, and ovulation are implicated events resulting from the somatic cells' release of molecular signals. Hu sheep is a high-quality sheep breed with high fecundity in China and is ideal for investigating high reproductive traits. In the current study, the sheep with lambing number ≥3 in three consecutive lambing records were assigned to the HLS group, and lambing number = 1 as the LLS group selected from the same farm with three consecutive lambings. Three randomly picked ewes were slaughtered within 12 h of estrus, and unilateral ovarian tissue was collected and analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing in each group. A total of five types of somatic cells were identified, and corresponding expression profiles were mapped in the ovaries of the Hu sheep. Additionally, the results of the difference in ovary somatic cell expression profiles between HLS and LLS present that the differences between multiples vs. singleton Hu sheep were mainly clustered in the GCs. In addition, 4 granulosa cell subtypes were identified. GeneSwitches results revealed the opening of JPH1 expression and the closure of LOC101112291, which leads to different evolutionary directions of the granular cells. The expression levels of FTH1 and FTL in GCs of Hu sheep in the HLS group were significantly higher, which inhibited necroptosis and ferroptosis of mural-GCs from decreasing follicular atresia. This study constructed the cellular atlas of the ovary and revealed related biological characteristics at the cellular molecular level. It provides a theoretical basis for the mechanisms underlying the differences in ovulation numbers, which contributes to breeding high-fertility sheep and molecular genetics-based selection.
Project description:The Bashbay sheep (Ovis aries), an indigenous breed of Xinjiang, China, has many excellent characteristics. However, hybrids of Argali sheep and Bashbay sheep are susceptible to Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae infection, the causative agent of mycoplasma ovipneumonia, a chronic respiratory disease that is harmful to the sheep industry. To date, knowledge regarding the mechanisms responsible for M. ovipneumoniae pathogenesis is in scant. Herein, we report the results of transcriptome profiling of lung tissues from Argali hybrid sheep experimentally infected with an M. ovipneumoniae strain at 4 and 14 days post-infection, in comparison to mock-infected animals (0 d). Transcriptome profiling was performed by deep RNA sequencing, using the Illumina platform. The analysis of differentially expressed genes was performed to determine concomitant gene-specific temporal patterns of mRNA expression in the lungs after M. ovipneumoniae infection. We found 156 differentially expressed genes (44 up-regulated, 112 down-regulated) when comparing transcriptomic data at 4 and 0 days post-infection, and 367 (35 up-regulated, 332 down-regulated) when comparing 14 versus 0 days post-infection. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes at 4 and 14 versus 0 days post-infection were enriched in 109 and 150 pathways, respectively, and the Primary immunodeficiency pathway was considered most closely related to MO infection (p < 0.01). Hyper-IgM syndrome was identified based on the B-cell immunodeficiency signaling pathway from differentially expressed genes related M. ovipneumoniae infection. Gene Ontology analysis showed that differentially expressed genes in different groups were enriched for 497 and 928 terms, where those most closely related to M. ovipneumoniae infection are ciliated motor damage (p < 0.01). These results could aid in understanding why the Argali hybrid sheep are susceptible to MO as well as how M. ovipneumoniae infection progresses in the lungs and may provide useful information regarding key regulatory pathways.
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.
Project description:This project deals with the characterisation and establishment of the baseline circulating acellular proteome of sheep serum using generic methods. Serum is a readily available substrate for most experimental and clinical applications as evidenced in recent sheep studies. It involves sample preparation for the optimisation of proteomic profiling of sheep serum. The chapter therefore represents the first step in the development of a proteomics pipeline for the detection protein alterations by first establishing the normal proteomic profile of sheep serum.
Project description:Texel and Ujumqin sheep show obvious differences in muscle and fat growth, so they are ideal models not only to understand the molecular mechanism in prenatal skeletal muscle development, but to identify the potential target genes of myostatin. To elucidate the phenotypic variation between the two sheep breeds and the dynamic characteristics of gene expression in skeletal muscle during the development, we examined the development of skeletal muscle in transcriptome-wide level at 70, 85,100,120 , 135 days post coitus (dpc),birth, 1 month and 2 month. Using the specialized and standardized sheep transcriptome-wide oligo DNA microarray (Agilent), we analyzed the transcriptomic profiles of longissmuss dorsi muscle from fetuses of Texel and Ujumqin sheep. We characterized dynamic transcriptome-wide profiles that accompany the prenatal skeletal muscle and fat development in Texel and Ujumqin sheep respectively, and compared the difference in profiles of gene expression between the two sheep breeds at the same developmental stage.Some potential myostatin target genes and other genes controlling the growth of skeletal muscle and adipose were identified for further examinations. Our findings not only contribute to understand the molecular mechanism of prenatal skeletal muscle development in large precocial species, but also provide some clues for human myopathy and obesity at prenatal stages. Moreover, we also can identify putative candidate genes for meat quality traits in farm animals. Longissimus dorsi muscles were sampled from five prenatal development stages (70, 85, 100, 120 and 135 day of gestation) in Texel and eight development stages (at 70, 85, 100, 120, 135 days post coitus (dpc), birth, 1 month and 2 month) in Ujumqin sheep. There were at least three replicates at each development time in each breed. Two gene expression experiments were conducted with a total of 40 hybridizations.
Project description:Sheep provide considerable materials for the animal fibre industry. Identifying genes of major effect for wool growth would offer strategies for improving the quality of fine wool. In this study, we employed Agilent Sheep Gene Expression Microarray and proteomic technology to investigate the gene expression patterns of body side skin between Aohan fine wool sheep and small tail Han sheep (two Chinese indigenous breed) at the anagen stage of wool follicle. Several potential gene families might participate in hair growth regulation, including fibroblast growth factors, transforming growth factor-β, WNTs, insulin-like growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factors and so on. Furthermore, according to the results at both mRNA and protein levels, similar regulation mechanism of gene activity might be engaged during skin development and embryo development.