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. 2021 Dec 8;11(12):3505.
doi: 10.3390/ani11123505.

Changes in Biceps femoris Transcriptome along Growth in Iberian Pigs Fed Different Energy Sources and Comparative Analysis with Duroc Breed

Rita Benítez  1 , Yolanda Núñez  1 , Miriam Ayuso  2 , Beatriz Isabel  3 , Miguel A Fernández-Barroso  1 , Eduardo De Mercado  4 , Emilio Gómez-Izquierdo  4 , Juan M García-Casco  1 , Clemente López-Bote  3 , Cristina Óvilo  1
Affiliations

Changes in Biceps femoris Transcriptome along Growth in Iberian Pigs Fed Different Energy Sources and Comparative Analysis with Duroc Breed

Rita Benítez et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of developmental stage, breed, and diet energy source on the genome-wide expression, meat quality traits, and tissue composition of biceps femoris muscle in growing pure Iberian and Duroc pigs. The study comprised 59 Iberian (IB) and 19 Duroc (DU) animals, who started the treatment at an average live weight (LW) of 19.9 kg. The animals were kept under identical management conditions and fed two diets with different energy sources (6% high oleic sunflower oil or carbohydrates). Twenty-nine IB animals were slaughtered after seven days of treatment at an average LW of 24.1 kg, and 30 IB animals plus all the DU animals were slaughtered after 47 days at an average LW of 50.7 kg. The main factors affecting the muscle transcriptome were age, with 1832 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and breed (1055 DEGs), while the effect of diet on the transcriptome was very small. The results indicated transcriptome changes along time in Iberian animals, being especially related to growth and tissue development, extracellular matrix (ECM) composition, and cytoskeleton organization, with DEGs affecting relevant functions and biological pathways, such as myogenesis. The breed also affected functions related to muscle development and cytoskeleton organization, as well as functions related to solute transport and lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Taking into account the results of the two main comparisons (age and breed effects), we can postulate that the Iberian breed is more precocious than the Duroc breed, regarding myogenesis and muscle development, in the studied growing stage.

Keywords: Duroc pig; Iberian pig; age; breed; diet; growth and development; interaction; muscle tissue; nutrigenomics; transcriptome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
IMF adipocytes of BF muscle of Iberian and Duroc pigs, 91.1 versus 78.5 microns, respectively, for these particular samples (photomicrographs taken with a Leica ICC50W™ camera coupled to a Leica DM1000™ microscope).
Figure 2
Figure 2
DEGs implicated in myogenesis. Genes in green color are upregulated in transition piglets and genes in red color are upregulated in growers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Integrative overview of signaling pathways related to muscle growth and development activated in muscle of grower pigs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Causal network of MEF2D regulator, which is activated in growers and leads to predicted inhibition of several functions related to proliferation in growers (activated in transition piglets) (z-score = 3.317, p-value = 0.002).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Regulator effects network predicted as activated in transition piglets, controlled by GMNN regulator.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Regulator effects network predicted to be activated in growers, controlled by CAMK4 and GNA12 regulators.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Causal network of FOXO3 regulator activated in Iberian pigs (z-score = −2.982; p-value 3.7 × 10−5).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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