Nutriepigenetics of muscle development in fetal programed beef cattle

• Grant number: 20/11515-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Miguel Henrique de Almeida Santana
• Grantee: Roberta Cavalcante Cracco
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/12105-2 - Fenomics of fetal programming effects on beef cattle production: a systemic approach, AP.JP

Abstract

Brazil is a major contributor to the consumption of beef in the world, after all it is the largest exporter and largest producer of this commodity, in addition to having the second largest herd in the world. However, the most applied production system in the country, Cerrado-Brachiaria-Nelore, is characterized by environmental challenges that lead to the nutritional alteration of pastures, in such a way that it harms the zootechnical performance of the cattle that consume it, showing that the country is below the real productive potential. Changes in the mother's nutrition during pregnancy can influence the health and productivity of the offspring in the long run. The supplementation of the matrix during pregnancy can bring positive changes to the progeny, something known as fetal programming (FP). Studies indicate that the nutritional condition of the matrix during pregnancy can program the development of skeletal muscle, and epigenetic changes are the primary means by which fetal programming is expressed. Thus, the objective of the present work is to use transcriptomics to evaluate the main epigenetic changes that occur in animals submitted to fetal programming and to build networks of gene co-expression to evaluate the metabolic pathways affected by these processes. For this purpose, 63 Nellore cattle, children of a single bull, will be used, divided into three nutritional plans of their parents during pregnancy: S of the mothers received protein-energy supplementation throughout the pregnancy, another S of the mothers only in the final third and S not received this nutritional stimulus. Longissimus dorsi muscle samples were collected at 30d, 15 and 22 months. The expression of genes related to epigenetic changes will be accessed using the SALMON software. The lncRNA will be identified using filters using bioinformatics and will have their differential expression tested between treatments using the edgeR package. The co-expression networks will be built with WGCNA and functional enrichment will be obtained through KEGG and Blast2GO. The results of this project may show the nutriepigenomic effects on muscle development in beef cattle. (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)

CRACCO, ROBERTA CAVALCANTE; BUSSIMAN, FERNANDO DE OLIVEIRA; POLIZEL, GUILHERME HENRIQUE GEBIM; FURLAN, EDISON; GARCIA, NARA PONTES; POIT, DIEGO ANGELO SCHMIDT; PUGLIESI, GUILHERME; SANTANA, MIGUEL HENRIQUE DE ALMEIDA. Effects of Maternal Nutrition on Female Offspring Weight Gain and Sexual Development. FRONTIERS IN GENETICS, v. 12, NOV 23 2021. (20/11515-5, 17/12105-2)