Dietary nutrients and metabolites influencing the bovine epigenome, the reproduction, the health and the food production

• Grant number: 22/06581-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Reproduction
• Principal Investigator: Juliano Rodrigues Sangalli
• Grantee: Juliano Rodrigues Sangalli
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Arlindo Saran Netto ; Carlos Eduardo Ambrósio ; Fabiana Fernandes Bressan ; Felipe Perecin ; Flávio Vieira Meirelles ; Guilherme Pugliesi ; Juliano Coelho da Silveira ; Lawrence Charles Smith ; Luiz Gustavo Nussio ; Marcos Roberto Chiaratti ; Nara Regina Brandão Cônsolo ; Ricardo Perecin Nociti ; Tiago Henrique Camara de Bem
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/13753-9 - Dietary nutrients and metabolites influencing the bovine epigenome, the reproduction, the health and the food production., BP.JP

Abstract

Food security is a concern for the humankind throughout the history. In all eras, human societies have struggled to ensure that all people had access to sufficient meals to lead active and healthy lives. The modern agriculture and the livestock production systems have dramatically increased the food production in the past few years, and it helped millions of humans to have access to the food and also to feed their livestock animals. However, the famine is still a huge problem, and it is estimated that there are ~1 billion of humans suffering of food deprivation. Beef and milk are highly nutritious food, and understanding the epigenetic mechanisms controlling their production by bovines can aid to mitigate this problem. An emerging and innovative area of study, that can revolutionize the animal health and production, it is the metabolic regulation of gene expression through histone acylations. Besides their canonical roles as energy providers, nutrients or metabolites - obtained from the diet or generated intracellularly in chemical reactions in the intermediary metabolism (e.g., beta-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, propionate, butyrate, acetate, crotonate, etc.) - were discovered to be capable of donate a radical to generate a corresponding epigenetic mark. These diversities of marks regulate the gene expression and modulate all the biological process (e.g. growth, reproduction, lactation, aging, immunity, cognition, DNA repair, etc.). However, the mechanisms by which several histone acylations affect the bovine epigenome and physiology are still in its infancy and remain uncharted. The rumen, the mammary gland and the early embryos are susceptible to variations on dietary components, and they change their gene expression programs to cope with those alterations. To understand how a given nutrient/metabolite epigenetically regulate these programs, it is fundamental to improve the animal production. On this basis, in this project we are proposing to investigate the epigenetic effects of metabolites such as: 1) the beta-hydroxybutyrate in early embryos and fetuses; 2) the beta-hydroxybutyrate in the mammary gland and its organoid; and 3) lactate, propionate and butyrate on ruminal epithelium. Our hypothesis is that the exposure to these metabolites it will affect its corresponding epigenetic mark in the sample being investigated, and consequently it will modify its epigenome and transcriptome. As a result, we expect to identify the altered genes and pathways after the exposure to a given metabolite/dietary component. These data will provide mechanistic information by which these molecules, commonly present in bovines, can change the embryo growth, the lactation, and the beef production. After the identification of pathways and genes responsive to the nutrients, these will be able to be modulated through the diet, aiming to improve the animal production. As a final goal, we intend to increase the milk and beef production, and as a consequence, to mitigate the global food security problem. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SANGALLI, JULIANO RODRIGUES; NOCITI, RICARDO PERECIN; CHIARATTI, MARCOS ROBERTO; BRIDI, ALESSANDRA; BOTIGELLI, RAMON CESAR; AMBRIZI, DEWISON RICARDO; SARAIVA, HELENA FABIANA REIS DE ALMEIDA; PERECIN, FELIPE; DA SILVEIRA, JULIANO COELHO; ROSS, PABLO JUAN; et al. Beta-hydroxybutyrate alters bovine preimplantation embryo development through transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms†. BIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION, v. 112, n. 2, p. 20-pg., 2024-12-12. (16/13416-9, 22/01433-7, 22/06581-4, 23/13753-9, 13/08135-2, 18/09552-0)