Project description:This study presents a dynamic characterization of the sheep milk transcriptome aiming at achieving a better understanding of the sheep lactating mammary gland. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on total RNA extracted from milk somatic cells from ewes on days 10, 50, 120 and 150 after lambing. The experiment was performed in Spanish Churra and Assaf breeds, which differ in their milk production traits. Nearly 67% of the annotated genes in the reference genome (Oar_v3.1) were expressed in ovine milk somatic cells. For the two breeds and across the four lactation stages studied, the most highly expressed genes encoded caseins and whey proteins. We detected differentially expressed genes (DEGs) across lactation points, with the largest differences being found, between day 10 and day 150. Upregulated GO terms at late lactation stages were linked mainly to developmental processes linked to extracellular matrix remodeling. A total of 256 annotated DEGs were detected in the Assaf and Churra comparison. Some genes selectively upregulated in the Churra breed grouped under the endopeptidase and channel activity GO terms. These genes could be related to the higher cheese yield of this breed. Overall, this study provides the first integrated overview on sheep milk gene expression.
Project description:Follicular development is a highly coordinated process in Hu sheep. Follicle-cyclic recruitment, spatial displacement, follicle atresia, and ovulation are implicated events resulting from the somatic cells' release of molecular signals. Hu sheep is a high-quality sheep breed with high fecundity in China and is ideal for investigating high reproductive traits. In the current study, the sheep with lambing number ≥3 in three consecutive lambing records were assigned to the HLS group, and lambing number = 1 as the LLS group selected from the same farm with three consecutive lambings. Three randomly picked ewes were slaughtered within 12 h of estrus, and unilateral ovarian tissue was collected and analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing in each group. A total of five types of somatic cells were identified, and corresponding expression profiles were mapped in the ovaries of the Hu sheep. Additionally, the results of the difference in ovary somatic cell expression profiles between HLS and LLS present that the differences between multiples vs. singleton Hu sheep were mainly clustered in the GCs. In addition, 4 granulosa cell subtypes were identified. GeneSwitches results revealed the opening of JPH1 expression and the closure of LOC101112291, which leads to different evolutionary directions of the granular cells. The expression levels of FTH1 and FTL in GCs of Hu sheep in the HLS group were significantly higher, which inhibited necroptosis and ferroptosis of mural-GCs from decreasing follicular atresia. This study constructed the cellular atlas of the ovary and revealed related biological characteristics at the cellular molecular level. It provides a theoretical basis for the mechanisms underlying the differences in ovulation numbers, which contributes to breeding high-fertility sheep and molecular genetics-based selection.
Project description:Reproductive efficiency in sheep is critically important for livestock production. This study provides the first multi-tissue proteomic characterization of high fecundity in Hu sheep, suggesting that their reproductive superiority may originate from hypothalamic-driven regulation, efficient coordination of key signaling pathways such as cAMP, and complex interactions among functionally important proteins across tissues. These findings offer valuable molecular insights into the regulation of reproductive traits in sheep, and the identified key proteins and pathways represent promising targets for further functional validation and molecular breeding applications.
Project description:Haemonchus contortus is the gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) species that most parasites sheep and goats in tropical and subtropical regions. Due to the high prevalence and pathogenicity by hematophagy, it causes severe anemia, submandibular edema and deaths. Post-genomics tools, such as proteomics, allow the identification of differentially expressed genes and differentially abundant proteins and metabolites between two conditions of a given factor. Thus, the detection of protein profiles that occur in more parasitized animals may be of great interest for the identification of sheep that effectively need anthelmintic treatment. As a result, the parasites are preserved in refugia through Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) strategies for the animals, extension of the period of efficacy of the anthelmintics and, when its use is necessary, parasite control will be more efficient. This project aims to characterize the plasma proteomic profile of sheep breeds susceptible and resistant to GIN infection, aiming at the future development of a diagnostic tool and the understanding of the resistance mechanisms involved in the Santa Inês, White Dorper and Texel sheep breeds. In this way, the development of methodologies, processes and products for the identification of sheep with higher rates of infection by GIN, in addition to the detection of breeds/individuals more resistant to these parasites and the understanding of the resistance mechanisms involved in the different hosts, is presented as a topic of great relevance for sheep farming, which can be extended to goat farming. It also addresses public health issues and the consumer population, which is increasingly demanding in terms of quality, certification and safety.
Project description:Hu sheep (HS) is known for its year-round estrus and multiple births, and is an ideal model for studying the mechanisms of high reproductive capacity in livestock. We established an RNA sequencing dataset to compare the expression profiles of long non coding RNA (lncRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) in the ovarian tissue exosomes of Hu sheep and low reproductive sheep breeds (Mongolian sheep) during estrus period.
Project description:An essential tissue involved in the development and regulation of lipid metabolism in animals is adipose tissue. The “fat-tail” can supply energy for sheep during migration and winter when a low amount of dry matter intake is available. Tail fat content affects meat quality and varies significantly among the different breeds of sheep. Ghezel (fat-tailed) and Zel (thin-tailed) are two important local Iranian sheep breeds that show different patterns of fat storage. The current study presents the transcriptome characterization of tail fat using RNA-sequencing in order to get a better comprehension of the molecular mechanism of lipid storage in the two sheep breeds. The results of sequencing were analyzed with bioinformatics methods, including differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identification, functional enrichment analysis, structural classification of proteins, protein–protein interaction (PPI), network analysis and module analysis. The results revealed a total of332 DEGs between the Zel and Ghezel breed, with78 up-regulated and 254 down-regulated DEGs in the Zel breed. Identification of differential genes showed that some DEGs, such as IL-6, LIPG, SAA1, SOCS3 and HIF-1α, with the largest fold change had close association with lipid deposition. Also, important lipid storage genes such as FASN and SCPEP1 had high levels of expression. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis revealed some pathways associated with fat deposition, such as “Fatty acid metabolism”, “Fatty acid biosynthesis” and“HIF-1 signaling pathway”. In addition, structural classification of proteins showed major DEGs in transcription factor classes such as JUNB, NR4A3, FOSL1, MAFF, NR4A1, CREB3L1 and ATF3 were up-regulated in the Zel breed. IL-6, JUNB, and related DEGs were up-regulated in the PPI network.HMGCS1, SUCLA2 and STT3B and related DEGs were down-regulated in the PPI network and had high topology scores as hub genes. This implies the DEGs of these modules are important candidate genes for tail fat metabolism and, therefore, can be further studied.
Project description:An essential tissue involved in the development and regulation of lipid metabolism in animals is adipose tissue. The “fat-tail” can supply energy for sheep during migration and winter when a low amount of dry matter intake is available. Tail fat content affects meat quality and varies significantly among the different breeds of sheep. Ghezel (fat-tailed) and Zel (thin-tailed) are two important local Iranian sheep breeds that show different patterns of fat storage. The current study presents the transcriptome characterization of tail fat using RNA-sequencing in order to get a better comprehension of the molecular mechanism of lipid storage in the two sheep breeds. The results of sequencing were analyzed with bioinformatics methods, including differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identification, functional enrichment analysis, structural classification of proteins, protein–protein interaction (PPI), network analysis and module analysis. The results revealed a total of332 DEGs between the Zel and Ghezel breed, with78 up-regulated and 254 down-regulated DEGs in the Zel breed. Identification of differential genes showed that some DEGs, such as IL-6, LIPG, SAA1, SOCS3 and HIF-1α, with the largest fold change had close association with lipid deposition. Also, important lipid storage genes such as FASN and SCPEP1 had high levels of expression. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis revealed some pathways associated with fat deposition, such as “Fatty acid metabolism”, “Fatty acid biosynthesis” and“HIF-1 signaling pathway”. In addition, structural classification of proteins showed major DEGs in transcription factor classes such as JUNB, NR4A3, FOSL1, MAFF, NR4A1, CREB3L1 and ATF3 were up-regulated in the Zel breed. IL-6, JUNB, and related DEGs were up-regulated in the PPI network.HMGCS1, SUCLA2 and STT3B and related DEGs were down-regulated in the PPI network and had high topology scores as hub genes. This implies the DEGs of these modules are important candidate genes for tail fat metabolism and, therefore, can be further studied.
Project description:Mear prodution is the most important trait for sheep. In this study, we performed a Genome-wide association study (GWAS) by using Illumina Ovine SNP50 BeadChip in 329 purebred sheep phenotyped for 11 growth and meat production traits (birth weight, weaning weight, 6-month weight, eye muscle area, fat thickness, pre-weaning gain, post-weaning gain, daily weight gain, height at withers , chest girth and shin circumference). A total of 319 sheep and 48,198 SNPs were fitted using TASSEL 3.0 software as random effects in a mixed linear model. 36 chromosome-wise significant SNPs were identified for 7 traits and 10 of them reached genome-wide significance level consistently for post-weaning gain. Gene annotation was implemented based on the latest version3.1 ovine genome sequence (released October 2012), and meanwhile we referenced genomic information of human, bovine, mouse and rat. More than one-third SNPs (14 out of 36) were located within ovine genes , some other were located close to ovine genes (878bp-398165bp apart). 329 sheep DNA were scanned using OvineSNP50 Beadchip and the association is done between the SNP data and 11 different meat prodution traits
Project description:Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is associated with pathology in multiple tissues including the lung, digestive tract and reproductive system. Lung disease is primarily a post-natal event but other organs are affected before birth. Here we use the CF sheep model to investigate the initiation and progression of CF disease through gestation.
Project description:Reproduction, as a physiologically complex process, can significantly affect the development of the sheep industry. However, a lack of overall understanding to sheep fecundity has long blocked the progress in sheep breeding and husbandry. Herein, in present study, we aimed to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) from hypothalamus in sheep without FecB mutation in two comparison groups: polytocous (PF) versus (vs.) monotocous (MF) sheep at follicular phase and polytocous (PL) vs. monotocous (ML) sheep at luteal phase,expecting to provide an alternative method to identify DEPs associated with sheep prolificacy from the hypothalamus.