Project description:In the last 20 years, there has been significant research towards defining the genetic basis of lipid metabolism and meat quality related traits in pigs. Nowadays, the study of the transcriptome and its regulatory mechanisms allows going far beyond in the genetic dissection of these complex traits. In present study, a genome-wide eQTL scan aiming to detect pig genome regions regulating levels of skeletal muscle mRNA expression has been performed. This study has been conducted on a commercial Duroc population where a number of QTL for muscle fat deposition and fatty acid composition had been detected. GeneChip Porcine Genome® arrays (Affymetrix) were used to determine the gene expression levels of gluteus medius samples from 105 Duroc pigs belonging to two groups with divergent phenotypes for fatness traits. This experimental design aimed to favour detection of eQTL affecting genes related to lipid metabolism and meat quality traits. The whole genome scan with a panel of 110 microsatellites allowed us detecting 613 genome-wide significant eQTL unequally distributed across the pig genome, SSC5 and SSC3 harbouring the highest number of eQTL. Moreover, 11 genome regions with eQTL affecting the expression levels of a high number of genes (eQTL hot spots) have been described. After mapping target probes and discarding low quality probes, a total of 59 cis- and 396 trans-acting eQTL were retained for further analyses. The functional classification showed that lipid-related GO terms were not the most enriched by the list of eQTL-regulated genes. However, a number of regulated genes functionally related to lipid metabolism and fat deposition traits were identified, and their functional relationship with these phenotypes were further investigated. With this purpose, eQTL results were integrated with 1) QTL linkage maps and 2) correlation data between phenotypes and gene expression levels. As a result, a comprehensive list of 29 positional and functional candidate genes was elaborated. These results represent a valuable contribution to the comprehension of genetic regulation of skeletal muscle individual gene expression in swine species, and a first step towards disentangling gene networks and molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism and meat quality traits.
Project description:In the last 20 years, there has been significant research towards defining the genetic basis of lipid metabolism and meat quality related traits in pigs. Nowadays, the study of the transcriptome and its regulatory mechanisms allows going far beyond in the genetic dissection of these complex traits. In present study, a genome-wide eQTL scan aiming to detect pig genome regions regulating levels of skeletal muscle mRNA expression has been performed. This study has been conducted on a commercial Duroc population where a number of QTL for muscle fat deposition and fatty acid composition had been detected. GeneChip Porcine Genome® arrays (Affymetrix) were used to determine the gene expression levels of gluteus medius samples from 105 Duroc pigs belonging to two groups with divergent phenotypes for fatness traits. This experimental design aimed to favour detection of eQTL affecting genes related to lipid metabolism and meat quality traits. The whole genome scan with a panel of 110 microsatellites allowed us detecting 613 genome-wide significant eQTL unequally distributed across the pig genome, SSC5 and SSC3 harbouring the highest number of eQTL. Moreover, 11 genome regions with eQTL affecting the expression levels of a high number of genes (eQTL hot spots) have been described. After mapping target probes and discarding low quality probes, a total of 59 cis- and 396 trans-acting eQTL were retained for further analyses. The functional classification showed that lipid-related GO terms were not the most enriched by the list of eQTL-regulated genes. However, a number of regulated genes functionally related to lipid metabolism and fat deposition traits were identified, and their functional relationship with these phenotypes were further investigated. With this purpose, eQTL results were integrated with 1) QTL linkage maps and 2) correlation data between phenotypes and gene expression levels. As a result, a comprehensive list of 29 positional and functional candidate genes was elaborated. These results represent a valuable contribution to the comprehension of genetic regulation of skeletal muscle individual gene expression in swine species, and a first step towards disentangling gene networks and molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism and meat quality traits. 105 gluteus medius samples from 105 animals belonging to two groups of 53 and 52 animals each: HIGH group had higher carcass, plasma and muscle fat content; LOW group had lower carcass, plasma and muscle fat content
Project description:The intramuscular fat (IMF) content of different beef cattle breeds varies greatly, which plays an important role in taste and nutritional value. However, the molecular mechanism of fat metabolism and deposition in beef cattle is still not very clear. In this study, the meat quality traits of Angus cattle and Chinese Simmental cattle were compared, the transcriptome of the longissimus dorsi muscle (LD) between Angus cattle and Chinese Simmental cattle was then analyzed to identify key genes related to fat metabolism and adipogenesis by high-throughput RNA-seq technology. In the current study conducted a comprehensive analysis on the transcriptome of the longissimus dorsi muscle (LD) of Angus and Simmental cattle, and identified differentially expressed genes related to lipid metabolism,which may have a great impact on on the formation of IMF.
Project description:A mRNA expression study has been performed 20-25 minutes postmortem obtained samples from Longissimus dorsi muscle of 59 Duroc x LD/LW pigs to search for gene sequences related to meat quality (pH24, pH45, “Lab” colour coordinates, curing yield and exudation at three different times) or to meat composition (intramuscular fat, content of several fatty acid (C16:0, C18:0, C18:1 and C18:2), ratio of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, and protein and humidity contents) traits in order to find targets for selection. Gene ontology analysis, biological pathways and gene networks studies all show, that many more differentially expressed genes (506 vs 279) are related to meat quality (Group P, or perimortem characters) than to meat composition traits (Group L, or whole life traits). The difference between the number of GO terms annotated, biological pathways and gene networks in groups P and L is notable due to the differences in the complexity of the “generation process” of P-traits and the involvement of other tissues or organs in the generation of variability of L-traits. Also, interactions between a list of differentially expressed genes were found in ECM-receptor interaction, TGF-beta signaling pathway, fatty acid elongation in mitochondria and adipocytokine signalling pathway indicating that a substantial fraction of the gene networks could be associated with interactions between differential expressed genes related to traits under study. A high number of the most overexpressed genes are related to muscle development and functionality and repair mechanisms; they could be good candidates for breeding programs whose main goal is to enhance meat quality. 59 Longissimus Dorsi samples from 59 LD/LW x Duroc cross. A total of 33 traits on composition, conformation and meat quality and compositional traits were recorded in the left Longissimus dorsi muscle.
Project description:Wagyu cattle are renowned for their premium beef characterized by abundant intramuscular fat (IMF). In contrast, Brahman, a popular breed in the southern coastal area of the US, generally produces tough meat with scarce IMF. However, the mechanisms underlying the differential meat quality between the two breeds are still largely unknown. Using single-cell RNAseq (scRNAseq), we identified many tissue-resident and immune cell types in Wagyu, Brahman, and Wagyu/Brahman crossbred cattle muscle. Multiple fibro/adipogenic progenitor (FAP) subpopulations were identified, including an endomysial adipogenic subpopulation and a perimysial fibrogenic subpopulation. Further analysis comparing individual FAP subpopulations between Wagyu and Brahman identified stronger pro-adipogenic gene expression in Wagyu adipogenic FAP subpopulation and higher pro-fibrogenic gene expression in Brahman fibrogenic FAP subpopulation. Overexpression of CFD, a gene upregulated in Wagyu adipogenic FAPs, enhanced the adipogenic efficiency of FAPs. Moreover, the expression of CFD in FAPs was positively correlated with the IMF content. Interestingly, the expression of CFD was identified in human FAPs but not FAPs of mouse models of intramuscular adipogenesis, suggesting that CFD is a species-specific regulator of IMF formation. Using a mouse line that allows lineage-tracing of FAPs expressing Postn, a gene upregulated in Brahman FAPs, we found that Postn expression was specifically activated during fibrogenic but not adipogenic programming. Cell-cell communication analysis revealed robust interactions between FAPs and other cell types, further suggesting the critical role of FAPs in bovine skeletal muscle growth, development, and homeostasis.
Project description:We performed a comparative genome-wide methylation analysis of longissimus dorsi muscles between the Japanese Black (Wagyu) and Chinese Red Steppes cattle, which exhibit significant differences in meat quality traits. This will allow us to better understand the correlation between DNA methylation variants and meat quality traits.