Omics integration of different tissues from Nelore steers submitted to different diets and its association with feed efficiency, beef quality, and methane emission

• Grant number: 23/01149-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: August 13, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Correia de Almeida Regitano
• Grantee: Aline Teixeira do Brasil Morais Trimidi
• Host Institution: Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/04089-2 - The Nelore hologenome: implications in beef quality and feed efficiency, AP.ESCIENCE.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/17798-7 - Metabolomic and metagenomic data integration of fecal samples from Nellore steers: an approach to understand the metabolic interactions between the host and the microbiome and predict biomarkers of feed efficiency, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Regarding environmental footprint, livestock production requires extensive land and water supplies in all of its production steps. Using crop residues and by-products as animal feed have the potential to reduce this footprint, by diluting the water usage among multiple products. However, variations in cattle diet can cause changes in the rumen microbiota structure, affecting the host health and productivity. For instance, although diets based on citric by-products may be cheaper than conventional diets, they have in their composition not only essential oils with antimicrobial activity that can alter the microbiota population, but also citrus pectin, a polysaccharide that can increase the ciliated protozoa population, which is important for H2 production and methanogens population. Recent advances in high throughput molecular sequencing and data analysis provide the opportunity to elucidate how different levels of gene expression affect the biological system, consequently, the phenotypes of economic interest of animals submitted to different diets. Then, our hypothesis is that animals submitted to different diet program show different transcriptome and miRNA expression, which are associated with feed efficiency, beef quality, and methane emission. To test our hypothesis, two groups of 26 Nelore bulls, under two diets, were evaluated for methane emission, feed efficiency, and meat quality traits. In addition, samples from liver, muscle, and epithelial rumen were collected.