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. 2021 Dec 17;11(6):66-73.
doi: 10.1093/af/vfab061. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Fetal programming in ruminant animals: understanding the skeletal muscle development to improve meat quality

Thaís Correia Costa  1 , Mateus Pies Gionbelli  2 , Marcio de Souza Duarte  1
Affiliations

Fetal programming in ruminant animals: understanding the skeletal muscle development to improve meat quality

Thaís Correia Costa et al. Anim Front. .
No abstract available

Keywords: epigenetic modifications; livestock; maternal nutrition; skeletal muscle development.

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Figures

Photo 1.
Photo 1.
Representative photo of a cow–calf pair in a fetal programming trial.
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(A) Photomicrograph (20× of magnification) of skeletal muscle of beef cattle showing the muscle fibers (red), and intramuscular collagen (blue). (B) Photomicrograph (20× of magnification) of skeletal muscle of beef cattle showing preadipocytes and adipocytes (indicated by white arrows) within muscle fibers.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Influence of epigenetic marks on livestock phenotype. (A) DNA methylation in CpG islands catalyzed by enzymes DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) leads to gene silencing, which can be reverted by DNA demethylases, represented by the enzyme ten-eleven translocation (TET). (B) Histone modification influencing the chromatin structure. The mark H3K27me3 result in a condensed chromatin (heterochromatin) and consequently gene silencing, while the marks H3K4me3 and H3K9Ac result in an unpacked chromatin (euchromatin) facilitating transcriptional factors to bind and proceed gene transcription. HMTs and HATs transfer the methyl and acetyl group to the residues of amino acids in the histone tails, respectively. While HDM and HDAC remove the methyl and acetyl group, respectively. (C) Inhibitory role of microRNAs (miRNAs) on the target mRNA. In case of imperfect base pairing with the target mRNA, miRNAs aim to inhibit translation and consequently protein synthesis, while the perfect complementation cause the degradation of the target mRNA.
Photo 2.
Photo 2.
Representative image of a male Brahman calf (Bos indicus) that was an outcome of a fetal programming trial comparing the effects of maternal supplementation with ruminal degradable and undegradable protein. The trial results are under analyses by the Muscle Biology and Nutrigenomics research group at the Federal University of Viçosa (data not published).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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