Project description:Background: Weaning of beef calves is a necessary husbandry practice and involves separating the calf from its mother, resulting in numerous stressful events including dietary change, social reorganisation and the cessation of the maternal-offspring bond and is often accompanied by housing. While much recent research has focused on the physiological response of the bovine immune system to stress in recent years, little is known about the molecular mechanisms modulating the immune response. Therefore, the objective of this study was to provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the physiological response to weaning at housing in beef calves using Illumina RNA-seq. Results: The leukocyte transcriptome was significantly altered for at least 7 days following either housing or weaning at housing. Analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that four main pathways, cytokine signalling, transmembrane transport, haemostasis and G-protein-coupled receptor (GPRC) signalling, were differentially regulated between control and weaned calves and underwent significant transcriptomic alterations in response to weaning stress on day 1, 2 and 7. Of particular note, chemokines, cytokines and integrins were consistently found to be up-regulated on each day following weaning. Evidence for alternative splicing of genes was also detected, indicating that a number of genes involved in the innate and adaptive immune response may be alternatively transcribed, including those responsible for toll receptor cascades and T cell receptor signalling. Conclusions: This study represents the first application of RNA-Seq technology for genomic studies in bovine leukocytes in response to weaning stress. Weaning stress induces the activation of a number of cytokine, chemokine and integrin transcripts and may alter the immune system whereby the ability of a number of cells of the innate and adaptive immune system to locate and destroy pathogens is transcriptionally enhanced. Stress alters the homeostasis of the transcriptomic environment of leukocytes for at least 7 days following weaning, indicating long-term effects of stress exposure in the bovine. The identification of gene signature networks that are stress activated provides a mechanistic framework to characterise the multifaceted nature of weaning stress adaptation in beef calves. Thus, capturing subtle transcriptomic changes provides insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the physiological response to weaning stress. Examination of a time course (day 0, 1, 2 and 7) for 2 treatments, calves either housed with their dam (control) or housed and simultaneously weaned, using RNA-seq. The supplementary processed data file 'read_counts.txt' contains unnormalized read counts for each Ensembl bovine gene in each of the 48 samples. Unnormalized counts are required for input to EdgeR. Genome build: Btau4.0
Project description:Background: Weaning of beef calves is a necessary husbandry practice and involves separating the calf from its mother, resulting in numerous stressful events including dietary change, social reorganisation and the cessation of the maternal-offspring bond and is often accompanied by housing. While much recent research has focused on the physiological response of the bovine immune system to stress in recent years, little is known about the molecular mechanisms modulating the immune response. Therefore, the objective of this study was to provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the physiological response to weaning at housing in beef calves using Illumina RNA-seq. Results: The leukocyte transcriptome was significantly altered for at least 7 days following either housing or weaning at housing. Analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that four main pathways, cytokine signalling, transmembrane transport, haemostasis and G-protein-coupled receptor (GPRC) signalling, were differentially regulated between control and weaned calves and underwent significant transcriptomic alterations in response to weaning stress on day 1, 2 and 7. Of particular note, chemokines, cytokines and integrins were consistently found to be up-regulated on each day following weaning. Evidence for alternative splicing of genes was also detected, indicating that a number of genes involved in the innate and adaptive immune response may be alternatively transcribed, including those responsible for toll receptor cascades and T cell receptor signalling. Conclusions: This study represents the first application of RNA-Seq technology for genomic studies in bovine leukocytes in response to weaning stress. Weaning stress induces the activation of a number of cytokine, chemokine and integrin transcripts and may alter the immune system whereby the ability of a number of cells of the innate and adaptive immune system to locate and destroy pathogens is transcriptionally enhanced. Stress alters the homeostasis of the transcriptomic environment of leukocytes for at least 7 days following weaning, indicating long-term effects of stress exposure in the bovine. The identification of gene signature networks that are stress activated provides a mechanistic framework to characterise the multifaceted nature of weaning stress adaptation in beef calves. Thus, capturing subtle transcriptomic changes provides insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the physiological response to weaning stress.
Project description:In vitro maturation (IVM) of the oocytes is a routine method in bovine embryo production. The competence of bovine oocytes to develop into embryo after IVM and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is lower as compared to in vivo preovulatory oocytes. Cumulus cells (CC) that enclose an oocyte are involved in the acquisition of oocyte quality during maturation. Using transcriptomic approach we compared cumulus cells gene expression during IVM with that in vivo preovulatory period.
Project description:Effect of short term diet restriction on gene expression in the bovine hypothalamus using next generation RNA sequencing technology
Project description:With regulatory roles in development, cell proliferation and disease, micro-RNA (miRNA) biology is of great importance and a potential key to novel RNA-based therapeutic regimens. Biochemically based sequencing approaches have provided robust means of uncovering miRNA binding landscapes on transcriptomes of various species. However, a current limitation to the therapeutic potential of miRNA biology in cattle is the lack of validated miRNAs targets. Here, we use cross-linking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) of the Argonaute (AGO) proteins and unambiguous miRNA-target identification through RNA chimeras to define a regulatory map of miRNA interactions in the cow (Bos taurus). The resulting interactome is the deepest reported to date for any species, demonstrating that comprehensive maps can be empirically obtained. We observe that bovine miRNA targeting principles are consistent with those observed in other mammals. Motif and structural analyses define expanded pairing rules with most interactions combining seed-based pairing with distinct, miRNA-specific patterns of auxiliary pairing. Further, miRNA-target chimeras had predictive value in evaluating true regulatory sites of the miR-17 family. Finally, we define miRNA-specific targeting for >5000 mRNAs and determine gene ontologies (GO) for these targets. This confirmed repression of genes important for embryonic development and cell cycle progress by the let-7 family, and repression of those involved in cell cycle arrest by the miR-17 family, but it also suggested a number of unappreciated miRNA functions. Our results provide a significant resource for transcriptomic understanding of bovine miRNA regulation, and demonstrate the power of experimental methods for establishing comprehensive interaction maps.