Muscle transcriptome analysis reveals genes and metabolic pathways related to mineral concentration in Bos indicus

Abstract

Mineral content affects the biological processes underlying beef quality. Muscle mineral concentration depends not only on intake-outtake balance and muscle type, but also on age, environment, breed, and genetic factors. To unveil the genetic factors involved in muscle mineral concentration, we applied a pairwise differential gene expression analysis in groups of Nelore steers genetically divergent for nine different mineral concentrations. Here, based on significant expression differences between contrasting groups, we presented candidate genes for the genetic regulation of mineral concentration in muscle. Functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction network analyses were carried out to search for gene regulatory processes concerning each mineral. The core genetic regulation for all minerals studied, except Zn, seems to rest on interactions between components of the extracellular matrix. Regulation of adipogenesis-related pathways was also significant in our results. Antagonistic patterns of gene expression for fatty acid metabolism-related genes may explain the Cu and Zn antagonistic effect on fatty acid accumulation. Our results shed light on the role of these minerals on cell function.

Figure 1

DEGs’ products protein-protein interaction network for each mineral. Proteins not partaking in an interaction are not shown. The line thickness between two proteins indicates the strength of data support. The colors inside the circles represent DEGs participating in the same pathway. The yellow halos represent DEGs upregulated in the H groups in relation to the L groups. The DEGs without a yellow halo were downregulated in the H groups in relation to L groups. (A) S, (B) K, (C) P, (D) Ca, (E) Na, (F) Mg, (G) Se, (H) Cu, and (I) Zn.

Figure 2

DEGs partaking in significant pathways. Rows: DEGs partaking in the significant pathways, columns: minerals presenting the significant pathways, colors: different significant pathways.