Project description:Weaning is a stressor that can have significant impacts on health and physiology of the offspring. The effect of this stressor may be modulated by the exposure to other stressors during gestation such as the inflammatory signals of the mother in response to infection. The goal of this study is to determine the combined effects of weaning stress and immune stress during gestation on gene expression in the amygdala, a brain region critical for decision-making and aggression. A RNA-seq study of the amygdala of female and male pigs was undertaken. Within sex group, half of the pigs were weaned at 21 d of age and the rest remain with the gilts and were nursed. Also, half of the pigs in each group were raised from gilts exposed to a viral infection and half were raised by gilts that served as control.
Project description:The objective of this experiment was to use transcriptional profiling of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue to develop a better understanding of the metabolic basis for poor weaned-pig transition. A total of 1,054 pigs were reared in commercial conditions and weighed at birth, weaning, and 3 weeks post- weaning. Transition average daily gain (tADG) was calculated as the average daily gain for the 3-week period post-weaning. Nine pigs from each of the lowest 10th percentile (low tADG) and the 60th-70th percentile (high tADG) were harvested at 3 weeks post-weaning. Differential expression analysis was conduced in both tissues using RNA-Seq methodology
Project description:The objective of this experiment was to use transcriptional profiling of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue to develop a better understanding of the metabolic basis for poor weaned-pig transition. A total of 1,054 pigs were reared in commercial conditions and weighed at birth, weaning, and 3 weeks post- weaning. Transition average daily gain (tADG) was calculated as the average daily gain for the 3-week period post-weaning. Nine pigs from each of the lowest 10th percentile (low tADG) and the 60th-70th percentile (high tADG) were harvested at 3 weeks post-weaning. Differential expression analysis was conduced in both tissues using RNA-Seq methodology mRNA profiling in two different tissues (skeletal muscle and adipose tissue) harvested at 3 weeks post-weaning
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in serum are very stable and specific. Moreover, serum miRNAs are non-destructive and convenient. Studies have shown that the changes of serum miRNAs are closely relative to the pathological stresses and diseases. Our previous studies suggested that weaning stress induced the abnormal miRNA transcriptome in the intestine of piglets. In this project, we will further screen serum miRNA expression in piglets induced by weaning stress using miRNA microarray. Microarrays containing 422 porcine unique miRNA probes were employed to identify differences in the expression patterns of the miRNA between weaning piglets at 4 d after weaning and suckling piglets at the same days old. A total of 115 differentally expressed miRNAs were found,therein 63 miRNAs upregulated and 52 miRNA downregulated; 64 miRNAs are statistically significant but have low signals (signal < 500);122 miRNAs are not statistically significant (p > 0.01); the remaining 132 miRNAs have not detected signals.
Project description:Global gene expression profiles of peripheral blood of 35 to 42 day-old Yorkshire pigs with extremely low (more efficient) and high RFI (less efficient) values from two Iowa State University lines (the low RFI line, n = 15, and the high RFI line, n =16) that were divergently selected for RFI during the grow-finish phase were determined by Illumina RNA-seq (100 bp, paired-end) on the Hiseq2000 platform to explore the transcription biomarkers for feed efficiency in pigs.
Project description:Female and male pigs were studied. Half of the pigs were exposed to immune activation from virally-infected mothers, and half were not exposed. At 60 days of age about one third of the pigs were given metabolic distress (fasting), one third of the pigs were given immune distress (poly(I:C)), and one third of the pigs were given Saline (control).