Project description:Proteins are essential for sperm function, including fertilizing capacity. Pig spermatozoa, emitted in well-defined ejaculate fractions, clearly vary in their functionality, which would be related to differences in protein composition. This study aimed firstly to update the porcine sperm proteome and secondly to identify proteins differentially expressed among mature spermatozoa from cauda epididymis and those fortuitously delivered in different ejaculate portions. Nine ejaculates from nine mature and fertile boars were manually collected in three separate ejaculate portions: the first 10 mL of sperm-rich ejaculate fraction (SRF), the rest of SRF and the post-SRF. The contents of cauda epididymides of the same boars was collected post-mortem by perfusion. All samples were centrifuged, pooling the resulting sperm pellets within the respective source-sample, which were later split to generate two technical replicates per source. The final eight sperm samples were subjected to iTRAQ-based 2D-LC-MS/MS for protein identification and quantification. A total of 1,723 proteins were identified (974 of Sus Scrofa taxonomy) and 1,602 of them were also quantified (960 of Sus Scrofa taxonomy). After an ANOVA test, 32 Sus Scrofa proteins showed quantitative differences (P < 0.01) among the sperm samples, which were particularly relevant for the functionality of spermatozoa fortuitously ejaculated in the post-SRF. The present study is the first showing quantitative differences in the protein profile of mature spermatozoa, involving proteins clearly implicated in sperm function, that prove the protein profile of boar spermatozoa is remodelled during ejaculation . These findings provide a valuable groundwork for further studies focused on identifying protein biomarkers of sperm fertility.
Project description:For gaining additional insights into the composition of the testicular proteome of the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica), we conducted 2DE-MS. Two-dimensional SDS PAGE was run on testicular lysates of three boars, with three gels per boar. Upon matching across gels, we arbitrarily selected protein spots for mass spectrometry analysis. Excised slices were vacuum dried and soaked with digestion buffer containing trypsin (0.01 μg/μl), followed by overnight incubation at 37°C in the same buffer without trypsin. Subsequently, peptides were extracted in solvents of increasing acetonitrile content, by sonication. Upon vacuum-centrifugation, peptides were reconstituted in 0.1% formic acid (FA). Following this, peptides were fractionated by reversed phase liquid chromatography (C18; buffer A: 0.1% FA dissolved in HPLC-H2O; buffer B: 0.1% FA, dissolved in CAN; flow-rate: 0.4 µL/min; gradient: 2-30% in 30 minutes). Eluted peptides were injected via an electrospray ionization interface into a Q-TOF mass spectrometer (one boar, Q TOF Ultima, Micromass/Waters, Manchester, UK) and an ion-trap mass spectrometer (two other boars, XCT ion-trap, Agilent Technologies, Waldbronn, Germany). We used ProteomeDiscoverer 2.4 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, USA) for peptide and protein identification. Using Sequest HT, we searched peak lists (*.mgf) against the Sus scrofa reference proteome database (UniProt Proteome ID: UP000008227, 49,793 proteins).
Project description:Three different stages of pig antral follicles have been studied in a granulosa-cell transcriptome analysis on nylon microarrays (1152 clones). The data have been generated from 7 RNA follicle pools and several technical replicates were made. Four Large, one Medium and two Small follicles pools were considered. For each follicle pool, 2 radioactive labellings were performed. Each membrane was exposed 16 hours (to avoid saturation of the signal of highly expressed genes) and 28 hours (to get some signal from lowly expressed genes). Each probe was hybridised on GPL3971 scag_scai Sus scrofa 1.2K mono array and on GPL3970 scag_scai Sus scrofa 4.6K triplicate array (except for GFS2172 which was labelled only once and hybridised onto 2 GPL3971 scag_scai Sus scrofa 1.2K mono array membranes), so that 4 spots are available for each gene (and 2 spots for GFS2172), for a given RNA and a given radioactive labelling. Keywords: granulosa-cell transcriptome analysis data consisted in (6 RNA x 2 labellings) + (GFS2172 RNA X 1 labelling)= 13 probes, 26 hybridisations, 52 images.
Project description:Recents studies in mammalian genomes have uncovered the extent of copy number variation (CNV) that contributes to phenotypic diversity, including health and disease status. Here we report the first glimpse of CNVs in the pig genome covering part of the chromosomes 4, 7, 14 and 17 already sequenced and assembled. We used a custom tiling oligonucleotide array with a median probe spacing of 409 bp to screen 12 unrelated Duroc boar founders of a vast-family material. After a strict CNV calling pipeline it was identified 40 copy number variable regions covering all the four chromosomes, with some overlapping segmental duplications and pig unigenes. This CNV snapshot analysis lays the groundwork for a better understanding of porcine phenotypes and genotypes for the identification of important economic traits. Keywords: comparative genome hybridization, CNV, Sus Scrofa, Nimblegen tiling array A custom 385k tiling-path array CGH was designed (Nimblegen Systems) to cover the preliminary Sus Scrofa assembly for chromosomes 4, 7, 14 and 17, from the August 2007 release (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/S_scrofa/), which was the newest version at the time of the experiment. From a pig family-material comprising 14 boar founders, 700 sows and about 12.000 offspring, 12 Duroc boar founders (A, B, C, D, E, G, H, J, K, L, M and N) were selected to function as test animals. An unrelated boar of the Hampshire breed was selected as the common reference. Each of the 12 boars were hybridized twice (technical replicates, 24 arrays) against the common reference.
Project description:Three different stages of pig antral follicles have been studied in a granulosa-cell transcriptome analysis on nylon microarrays (1152 clones). The data have been generated from 7 RNA follicle pools and several technical replicates were made. Four Large, one Medium and two Small follicles pools were considered. For each follicle pool, 2 radioactive labellings were performed. Each membrane was exposed 16 hours (to avoid saturation of the signal of highly expressed genes) and 28 hours (to get some signal from lowly expressed genes). Each probe was hybridised on GPL3971 scag_scai Sus scrofa 1.2K mono array and on GPL3970 scag_scai Sus scrofa 4.6K triplicate array (except for GFS2172 which was labelled only once and hybridised onto 2 GPL3971 scag_scai Sus scrofa 1.2K mono array membranes), so that 4 spots are available for each gene (and 2 spots for GFS2172), for a given RNA and a given radioactive labelling. Keywords: granulosa-cell transcriptome analysis
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse biological processes. However, the landscape of lncRNAs is largely unclear in Sus scrofa. Here we performed stranded RNA-seq on total RNA libraries from over 100 samples of Sus scrofa tissues. We identified 10,813 lncRNAs in Sus scrofa, of which 9,075 are novel. 57% of these lncRNAs were conserved in both human and mouse. These conserved lncRNAs tend to be more tissue-specific than pig-specific lncRNAs, and enriched in reproducible organs (i.e. testis and ovary). We characterized a group of lncRNAs potentially involved in the skeletal muscle development. One such lncRNA, a homolog of maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3), was specifically expressed in the skeletal muscle at early developmental stage. And its expression pattern is conserved in pig and mouse. By over-expressing and knocking down MEG3 in mouse myoblast cell lines, we demonstrated its novel function as a myoblast proliferation suppressor.
Project description:We sequenced and analyzed the genome of a highly inbred miniature Chinese pig strain, the Banna Minipig Inbred Line (BMI). we conducted whole genome screening using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology and performed SNP calling using Sus Scrofa genome assembly Sscrofa11.1.
Project description:Copy number variations (CNVs), which represent a significant source of genetic diversity in mammals, are currently being associated with phenotypes of clinical relevance, mostly in humans and mice. Notwithstanding, little is known about the extent of CNV that contributes to genetic variation in farm animals, including pig. This Nimblegen experiment reports a genome-wide high resolution map of copy number variation in the porcine genome. After remapping the initial CNV sequences to the latest genome assembly (Sus scrofa v.9), 84 CNV regions (CNVRs) were identified among the genomes of 21 related porcine samples from Duroc breed. We used a set of NimbleGen CGH arrays that tile across the assayable portion of the pig genome with approximately 2.1 million probes, at a 502 bp average probe spacing (Sus scrofa pre assembly version 6). These CNVRs covered 2 Mb of the genome, and ranged in size from 4 to 352 kb (median size of 12 kb). Together, this analysis provides a useful resource to assist with the assessment of CNVs in the contexts of porcine variation, health and productive efficiency. 21 samples were analyzed in a dye swap loop design. In order to cover the latest, at the time of the experiment, porcine genome assembly (Sus scrofa v.6) with high density, custom Nimblegen HD2 CGH arrays were planned to cover all the chromosomes available with 2.1M probes, which yielded 502 bp of average probe spacing.
Project description:Copy number variations (CNVs), which represent a significant source of genetic diversity in mammals, are currently being associated with phenotypes of clinical relevance, mostly in humans and mice. Notwithstanding, little is known about the extent of CNV that contributes to genetic variation in farm animals, including pig. This Nimblegen experiment reports a genome-wide high resolution map of copy number variation in the porcine genome. After remapping the initial CNV sequences to the latest genome assembly (Sus scrofa v.9), 84 CNV regions (CNVRs) were identified among the genomes of 21 related porcine samples from Duroc breed. We used a set of NimbleGen CGH arrays that tile across the assayable portion of the pig genome with approximately 2.1 million probes, at a 502 bp average probe spacing (Sus scrofa pre assembly version 6). These CNVRs covered 2 Mb of the genome, and ranged in size from 4 to 352 kb (median size of 12 kb). Together, this analysis provides a useful resource to assist with the assessment of CNVs in the contexts of porcine variation, health and productive efficiency.