Project description:The liver of dairy cows naturally displays a series of metabolic adaptation during the periparturient period in response to the increasing nutrient requirement of lactation. The hepatic adaptation is partly regulated by insulin resistance and it is affected by the prepartal energy intake level of cows. We aimed to investigate the metabolic changes in the liver of dairy cows during the periparturient at gene expression level and to study the effect of prepartal energy level on the metabolic adaptation at gene expression level.B13:N13
Project description:Growth plate chondrocytes were isolated from the distal metacarpus of young dairy cattle (all under 10 mo of age), the chondrocytes were released from the extracellular matrix by digestion with Collagenase P for 4 hours, and the various zones of the growth plate were separated by density centrifugation. The least-dense Hypertrophic Zone (HZ) cells were compared to the most-dense Reserve Zone (RZ) cells. 6 pairs of HZ vs RZ were compared by microarray. Experiment Overall Design: Growth plate chondrocytes were isolated from the distal metacarpus of young dairy cattle (all under 10 mo of age), the chondrocytes were released from the extracellular matrix by digestion with Collagenase P for 4 hours, and the various zones of the growth plate were separated by density centrifugation. The least-dense Hypertrophic Zone (HZ) cells were compared to the most-dense Reserve Zone (RZ) cells. Six independent sample pairs of HZ vs RZ were compared by microarray.
Project description:To identify transcriptional markers for beef traits related to meat tenderness and moisture, we measured the transcriptome of the Longissimus dorsi skeletal muscle in 10 Korean native cattle (KNC). We analyzed the correlation between the beef transcriptome and measurements of four different beef traits, shear force (SF), water holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss (CL), and loin eye area (LEA). We obtained non-overlapping and unique panels of genes showing strong correlations (|r| > 0.8) with SF, WHC, CL, and LEA, respectively. Functional studies of these genes indicated that SF was mainly related to energy metabolism, and LEA to rRNA processing. Interestingly, our data suggested that WHC is influenced by protein metabolism. Overall, the skeletal muscle transcriptome pointed to the importance of energy and protein metabolism in determining meat quality after the aging process. The panels of transcripts for beef traits may be useful for predicting meat tenderness and moisture. Experiment Overall Design: Gene expression profiles were correlated with beef traits measured at the same cattle.
Project description:With regulatory roles in development, cell proliferation and disease, micro-RNA (miRNA) biology is of great importance and a potential key to novel RNA-based therapeutic regimens. Biochemically based sequencing approaches have provided robust means of uncovering miRNA binding landscapes on transcriptomes of various species. However, a current limitation to the therapeutic potential of miRNA biology in cattle is the lack of validated miRNAs targets. Here, we use cross-linking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) of the Argonaute (AGO) proteins and unambiguous miRNA-target identification through RNA chimeras to define a regulatory map of miRNA interactions in the cow (Bos taurus). The resulting interactome is the deepest reported to date for any species, demonstrating that comprehensive maps can be empirically obtained. We observe that bovine miRNA targeting principles are consistent with those observed in other mammals. Motif and structural analyses define expanded pairing rules with most interactions combining seed-based pairing with distinct, miRNA-specific patterns of auxiliary pairing. Further, miRNA-target chimeras had predictive value in evaluating true regulatory sites of the miR-17 family. Finally, we define miRNA-specific targeting for >5000 mRNAs and determine gene ontologies (GO) for these targets. This confirmed repression of genes important for embryonic development and cell cycle progress by the let-7 family, and repression of those involved in cell cycle arrest by the miR-17 family, but it also suggested a number of unappreciated miRNA functions. Our results provide a significant resource for transcriptomic understanding of bovine miRNA regulation, and demonstrate the power of experimental methods for establishing comprehensive interaction maps.
Project description:The Gayal (Bos frontalis) is a rare semi-domesticated cattle in China. Gayal has typical beef body shape and good meat production performance. Compared with other cattle species, it has the characteristics of tender meat and extremely low fat content. To explore the underlying mechanism responsible for the differences of meat quality between different breeds, the longissimus dorsi muscle (LM) from Gayal and Banna cattle (Bos taurus) were investigated using transcriptome analysis. The gene expression profiling identified 638 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between LM muscles from Gayal and Banna cattle. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment of biological functions and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that the gene products were mainly involved in the PPAR signaling pathway, lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism pathway. Protein-protein interaction(PPI) network analysis showed APOB, CYP7A1, THBS2, ITGAV, IGFBP1 and IGF2R may have great impact on meat quality characteristics of Gayal. Moreover, three transcription factors, FOXA2, NEUROG2, and RUNX1, which may affect meat quality by regulating the expression of genes related to muscle growth and development have also been found. In summary, our research reveals the molecular mechanisms that cause Gayal meat quality characteristics. It will contribute to improving meat quality of cattle through molecular breeding.
Project description:Infertility is a disease that affects humans and cattle in similar ways. The resemblance includes complex genetic architecture, multiple etiology, low heritability of fertility related traits in females, and the frequency in the female population. Here, we used cattle as a biomedical model to test the hypothesis that gene expression profiles of protein-coding genes expressed in peripheral white blood cells (PWBCs), and circulating micro RNAs in plasma, are associated with female fertility, measured by pregnancy outcome. We drew blood samples from 17 female calves on the day of artificial insemination and analyzed transcript abundance for 10496 genes in PWBCs and 290 circulating micro RNAs. The females were later classified as pregnant to artificial insemination, pregnant to natural breeding or not pregnant. We identified 1860 genes producing significant differential coexpression (eFDR<0.002) based on pregnancy outcome. Additionally, 237 micro RNAs and 2274 genes in PWBCs presented differential coexpression based on pregnancy outcome. Furthermore, using a machine learning prediction algorithm we detected a subset of genes whose abundance could be used for blind categorization of pregnancy outcome. Our results provide strong evidence that bloodborne transcript abundance is highly associated with fertility in females.
Project description:Tropical theileriosis in a cattle disease of global economic importance, caused by the tick-borne protozoan parasite Theileria annulata. Conventional control strategies are failing to contain the disease and an attractive alternative is the use of pre-existing genetic resistance or tolerance. However, tropical theileriosis tolerant cattle are less productive than some susceptible breeds. To combine resistance and production traits requires an understanding of the mechanisms involved in resistance. Therefore, we have compared the response of monocytes derived from tolerant (Sahiwals, Bos indicus) and susceptible (Holstein-Friesians, B. taurus) cattle to in vitro infection with T. annulata. Over 150 genes exhibited breed-specific differential expression during the course of infection and nearly one third were differentially expressed in resting cells, implying that there are inherent differences between monocytes from the breeds. Fifty sequences currently only match ESTs or are unique to the library used to generate the microarray. The differential expression of a selection of genes was validated by quantitative RT-PCR, e.g. CD9, prion protein and signal-regulatory protein alpha. A large proportion of the differentially expressed genes encode proteins expressed on the plasma membrane or in the extracellular space and cell adhesion was one of the major Gene Ontology biological processes identified. We therefore hypothesise that the breed-specific tolerance of Sahiwal cattle compared to Holstein-Friesians is due to the interaction of infected cells with other immune cells, which influences the immune response generated against T. annulata infection. The BoMP microarray is available from the ARK-Genomics facility (www.ark-genomics.org).