Project description:Seasonal weight loss is one of the most important limitations to ruminant production in drought-prone regions. In these regions and under the dry season, animals may lose up to 30% of their body weight, conditioning production performance. It is of the utmost importance to understand the physiological basis of tolerance to SWL, particularly by contrasting breeds that are susceptible and tolerant to SWL. In this study, transcriptomics was used to describe the gene expression effects of feed restriction in dairy goat of two breeds with different SWL tolerance: Majorera (tolerant) and Palmera (susceptible). Two control and two restricted groups per breed were established: Majorera Control (adequately fed; MC; n=4), Palmera Control (adequately fed; PC; n=6), Majorera Restricted (feed restricted; ME; n=5) and Palmera Restricted (feed restricted; PE; n=4). On day 22 of the trial, mammary gland biopsies were collected for transcriptomics analysis. Results were obtained using Next Generation RNA sequencing and validation using qPCR.
Project description:Goats are adapted efficiently in different agro-climatic conditions. Goat milk has several unexplored health-promoting properties that need to be investigated scientifically and promoted commercially. Goat milk is mainly consumed in family and plays a pivotal role in fulfilling the nutritional requirement of older people, pregnant women and children. There has been considerable interest in goat milk protein due to availability of different bioactive peptides, which have nutraceutical applications. Secondly, goat milk is being used for treatment of different disease, allergy and heat stress condition. Therefore, the milk proteome analysis appears to be timely and required for future industrial application with respect to human health and nutrition. 2-DGE analysis of identified protein variants was performed and further identification of proteins was carried out through LC-MS/MS. variant samples from 15 breeds were resolved by 2DGE and spots were identified and analysed by LC-MS/MS from 15 different breeds for presence of unique peptides.
Project description:Local breeds retained unique genetic variability important for adaptive potential especially in light of challenges related to climate change. Our objective was to perform, for the first time, a genome-wide diversity characterization using Illumina GoatSNP50 BeadChip of autochthonous Drežnica goat breed from Slovenia. Genetic diversity analyses revealed that the Slovenian Drežnica goat has a distinct genetic identity and is closely related to the neighboring Austrian and Italian alpine breeds. These results expand our knowledge on phylogeny of goat breeds from easternmost part of the European Alps.
Project description:The aim of the study was to investigate differences in the gene expression profiles of selected tissues in two most popular goat’s breeds in Poland: Polish White Improved (PWI) and Polish Fawn Improved (PFI). Three different types of tissue samples were selected: somatic cells isolated from goats’ milk (MSC), milk fat globules (MFG) and peripheral nuclear blood cells (PBNC) Since there were no earlier genetic studies focused on genetic differences between these two goat breeds we decided to evaluate hypothetical genomic differences assuming that such a differences should be the consequence of genetic differences. We created the hypothesis that if genomic differences exist they should be revealed in hierarchical clustering of transcriptomic profiles of selected tissues. Should the genomic differences exist the clusters obtained are grouping goat breeds and not goat’s tissues. The results of hierarchical clustering however show something completely different. The clusters are grouping goat tissues (milk fat globules, milk somatic cells, peripheral blood nuclear cells) without any relation with goat breed. So the analytical tool does not recognize the goat breed as a driver of transcriptomic difference. Moreover, we were not able to find significantly regulated genes between two breeds
Project description:Intramuscular fat (IMF) and its fatty acid composition in longissimus dorsi muscle (LM) are changed along with the growth of age, which partly determines the flavor and nutritional value of goat meat. However, unlike cattle, there is few data available on the transcriptome-wide changes at different postnatal stages in small ruminants specially for goats. In this study, the transcriptome by RNA sequencing of goat LM tissues collected from kid, youth and adult period were mapped to goat genome. Out of a total of 24689 unigenes, 20435 unigenes were annotated. Based on FPKM a total of 111 annotated differentially expressed genes (DEG) were identified among different postnatal stages, which was then classified to 16 possible expression patterns by series-cluster analysis. Functional classification through GO was used for selecting the top expressed genes related to lipid metabolism. Using co-expression analysis, we identified the node genes for lipid metabolism regulation. In conclusion, these data may provide candidate genes with high probability of having functional roles in regulating goat IMF deposition during the various growth stages.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate the post transcriptional control of several pathway intermediates, and essential for regulation in skeletal muscle of many species, such as mice, cattle, pig and so on. However, a little number of miRNAs have been reported in the muscle development of goat. In this study, the longissimus dorsi transcripts of goat at 1- and 10-month-old were analyzed for RNA-seq and miRNA-seq. The results showed that 10-month-old Longlin goat expressed 327 up- and 419 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) compared with the 1-month-old were founded. In addition, 20 co-up-regulated and 55 co-down-regulated miRNAs involved in muscle fiber hypertrophy of goat were identified in 10-month-old Longlin and Nubian goat compared with 1-month-old. Five miRNA–mRNA pairs (chi-let-7b-3p-MIRLET7A, chi-miR193b-3p-MMP14, chi-miR-355-5p-DGAT2, novel_128-LOC102178119, novel_140-SOD3) involved in the goat skeletal muscle development were identified by miRNA–mRNA negative correlation network analysis. Our results provided an insight into the functional roles of miRNAs of goat muscle-associated miRNAs, allowing us to better understand the transformation of miRNA roles during mammalian muscle development.
Project description:Guard hair and cashmere undercoat are developed from primary and secondary hair follicle, respectively. Little is known about the gene expression differences between primary and secondary hair follicle cycling. In this study, we obtained RNA-seq data from cashmere and milk goats grown at four different seasons. We studied the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during the yearly hair follicle cycling, and between cashmere and milk goats. WNT, NOTCH, MAPK, BMP, TGFβ and Hedgehog signaling pathways were involved in hair follicle cycling in both cashmere and milk goat. However, Milk goat DEGs between different months were significantly more than cashmere goat DEGs, with the largest difference being identified in December. Some expression dynamics were confirmed by quantitative PCR and western blot, and immunohistochemistry. This study offers new information sources related to hair follicle cycling in milk and cashmere goats, which could be applicable to improve the wool production and quality.