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. 2020 Feb 6;10(2):58.
doi: 10.3390/metabo10020058.

Selection for Growth and Precocity Alters Muscle Metabolism in Nellore Cattle

Nara Regina Brandão Cônsolo  1 , Juliana da Silva  1 , Vicente Luiz Macedo Buarque  1 , Angel Higuera-Padilla  2 , Luis Carlos Garibaldi Simon Barbosa  2 , Andressa Zawadzki  3 , Luis Alberto Colnago  2 , Arlindo Saran Netto  1 , David Edwin Gerrard  4 , Saulo Luz Silva  1
Affiliations

Selection for Growth and Precocity Alters Muscle Metabolism in Nellore Cattle

Nara Regina Brandão Cônsolo et al. Metabolites. .

Abstract

To clarify the relationship between beef genetic selection for growth and precocity with muscle metabolism and metabolites, we performed metabolomic analysis using Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle from Nellore cattle with divergent selection for these traits (high growth, HG; low growth, LG; high precocity, HP; low precocity, LP). Genetic potential for growth affected muscle protein and energetic metabolism. HG animals had a high concentration of arginine, carnosine, and leucine compared to LG animals. HP animals presented a high concentration of glutamine, betaine, creatinine, isoleucine, carnitine, acetyl carnitine, and lower levels of glucose compared to LP animals, affecting protein and fatty acid metabolism. Intensity of selection (high or low) was correlated with changes in protein metabolism, and the type of selection (growth or precocity) affected fat metabolism. In conclusion, both HG and HP appear to be correlated with a high concentration of protein metabolites and changes in protein metabolic pathways, while selection for precocity is more correlated with changes in fat metabolism compared to animals selected for growth.

Keywords: NMR spectroscopy; Nellore; genetic selection; growth; metabolomics; muscle metabolites; precocity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) obtained from employing the metabolic concentration of all metabolites detected in the muscle tissue of animals according to: (A) Growth: high growth (HG) and low growth (LG) animals are represented by the red and green colors, respectively; and (B) Precocity: high precocity (HP) and low precocity (LP) animals represented by the red and green colors, respectively. The validation analysis for growth resulted in the R2 = 0.427, Q2 = 0.105, and Accuracy = 0.64 (Figure S1: Validation statistics for PLS-DA on animals selected for growth); for precocity, R2 = 0.795, Q2 = 0.523, and Accuracy = 0.92 (Figure S2: Validation statistics for PLS-DA on animals selected for precocity).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Variable importance in projection (VIP) plot value analyses obtained from (A) high precocity (HP) and low precocity (LP) animals; and (B) high growth (HG), high precocity (HP), low growth (LG), and low precocity (LP) animals. AC: Acetylcarnitine.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Metabolomics pathways of the meat extract revealed significant differences in the drawn pathway according to (A) Precocity: high precocity (HP) and low precocity (LP); (B) Selection traits: Growth and Precocity; and (C) Intensity of selection: High and Low. In the scatter plot, the x-axis indicates the impact on the pathway whereas the y-axis indicates significant changes in the pathway by detected metabolites. Darker color and larger size represent higher p-values from the enrichment analysis and greater impact from the pathway topology analysis, respectively.
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