Project description:This study examined tolerance to hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in yearling beef cattle raised at high elevation (7120 ft/2170m).
Project description:Purpose: characterize the uterine transcriptome profiles of pregnant (P) versus non-pregnant (NP) cows during early pregnancy and attempted to define a potential set of marker genes that can be valuable for predicting pregnancy outcome. Methods: beef cows were synchronized and artificially inseminated at detected estrus. Six days after AI, jugular blood samples and a biopsy from the uterine horn contralateral to the ovary containing the corpus luteum were collected. Based on pregnancy outcome on day 30, samples were retrospectively allocated to the following groups: Pregnant and Non-Pregnant. Both groups had similar plasma progesterone concentrations on D6. Uterine biopsies were submitted to RNA-Seq analysis in a Illumina HiScanSQ platform. Results: The 272,685,768 million filtered reads were mapped to the Bos taurus reference genome and 14,654 genes were analyzed for differential expression between groups. Transcriptome data showed that 216 genes are differently expressed when comparing NP versus P uterine tissue (Padj≤0.1). More specifically, 36 genes were up-regulated in P cows and 180 are up-regulated in NP cows. Conclusions: this study characterized a unique set of genes, expressed in the uterus on 6 days after insemination, that indicate a receptive state leading to pregnancy success. Furthermore, expression of such genes can be used as potential markers to efficiently predict pregnancy success. endometrial mRNA profiles of pregnant and non-pregnant cows were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina HiScanSQ platform BioProject PRJNA268916 SRA Study SRP05036
Project description:Purpose: characterize the uterine transcriptome profiles of pregnant (P) versus non-pregnant (NP) cows during early pregnancy and attempted to define a potential set of marker genes that can be valuable for predicting pregnancy outcome. Methods: beef cows were synchronized and artificially inseminated at detected estrus. Six days after AI, jugular blood samples and a biopsy from the uterine horn contralateral to the ovary containing the corpus luteum were collected. Based on pregnancy outcome on day 30, samples were retrospectively allocated to the following groups: Pregnant and Non-Pregnant. Both groups had similar plasma progesterone concentrations on D6. Uterine biopsies were submitted to RNA-Seq analysis in a Illumina HiScanSQ platform. Results: The 272,685,768 million filtered reads were mapped to the Bos taurus reference genome and 14,654 genes were analyzed for differential expression between groups. Transcriptome data showed that 216 genes are differently expressed when comparing NP versus P uterine tissue (Padj≤0.1). More specifically, 36 genes were up-regulated in P cows and 180 are up-regulated in NP cows. Conclusions: this study characterized a unique set of genes, expressed in the uterus on 6 days after insemination, that indicate a receptive state leading to pregnancy success. Furthermore, expression of such genes can be used as potential markers to efficiently predict pregnancy success.
Project description:The biological mechanisms associated with the residual feed intake in ruminants have been harnessed immensely via transcriptome analysis of liver and ruminal epithelium, however, this concept has not been fully explored using whole blood. We applied whole blood transcriptome analysis and gene set enrichment analysis to identify key pathways associated with divergent selection for low or high RFI in beef cattle. A group of 56 crossbred beef steers (average BW = 261.3 ± 18.5 kg) were adapted to a high-forage total mixed ration in a confinement dry lot equipped with GrowSafe intake nodes for period of 49 d to determine their residual feed intake (RFI). After RFI determination, weekly whole blood samples were collected three times from beef steers with the lowest RFI (most efficient; low-RFI; n = 8) and highest RFI (least efficient; high-RFI; n = 8). Prior to RNA extraction, whole blood samples collected were composited for each steer. Sequencing was performed on an Illumina NextSeq2000 equipped with a P3 flow. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to analyze differentially expressed gene sets and pathways between the two groups of steers. Results of GSEA revealed pathways associated with metabolism of proteins, cellular responses to external stimuli, stress, and heat stress were differentially inhibited (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05) in high-RFI compared to low-RFI beef cattle, while pathways associated with binding and uptake of ligands by scavenger receptors, scavenging of heme from plasma, and erythrocytes release/take up oxygen were differentially enriched (FDR < 0.05) in high-RFI, relative to low-RFI beef cattle. Taken together, our results revealed that beef steers divergently selected for low or high RFI revealed differential expressions of genes related to protein metabolism and stress responsiveness.
Project description:In ruminants, the period from fertilization to implantation is relatively prolonged, and survival of embryos depends on uterine secretions, or histotroph. Our objective was to determine if prebreeding diet affected histotroph proteome in beef cattle. Cows were assigned to 1 of 4 diets: control (CON), high protein (PROT), high fat (OIL), or high protein and fat (PROT+OIL). After 185d on diets, an intravaginal progesterone implant (CIDR) was inserted for 7 days. At 9 days post CIDR removal, animals with a corpus luteum were selected (n = 16, 4/treatment). Proteins were isolated from histotroph collected by uterine lavage and analyzed with LC-MS/MS. Over 2000 proteins were expressed (n >= 3 cows/treatment), with 1239 proteins common among every group. There were 20, 37, 85, and 123 proteins unique to CON, PROT+OIL, PROT, and OIL, respectively. Relative to CON, 23, 14, and 51 proteins were differentially expressed in PROT+OIL, PROT, and OIL, respectively. Functional analysis found that 53% of histotroph proteins were categorized as extracellular exosome, 3.28% as cell-cell adhesion, and 17.4% in KEGG metabolic pathways. Differences in proteomes among treatments support that prebreeding diet affects histotroph. Understanding the impact of diet on histotroph proteins may help to improve conception rates.
Project description:Creatine pyruvate (CrPyr) is a new multifunctional nutrient that can provide both pyruvate and creatine. It has been shown to relieve the heat stress of beef cattle by improving antioxidant activity and rumen microbial protein synthesis, but the mechanism of CrPyr influencing rumen fermentation remains unclear. This study aimed to use metaproteomics technologies to investigate the bacterial protein function in rumen fluid samples taken from heat-stressed beef cattle treated with or without 60 g/d CrPyr.
Project description:Analysis of uterine microenvironment at gene expression level. The hypothesis tested in the present study was that Tregs orchestrated the immune reponse triggered in presence of embryo. Total RNA obtained from uterine microenvironment tissues of Treg depleted pregnant mice (12 days after fertilization) compared to control tissues (uterus from PBS treated pregnant mice).