ABSTRACT. The balance between biosynthesis and oxidation of fatty acids determines adipose deposition in mammals. Obese and lean pigs show obvious differences in total adipose mass and therefore offer an attractive model for comparative studies. We found that obese Rongchang pigs, when compared with lean Landrace pigs, exhibited significantly higher mRNA levels for five genes encoding acyl-CoA dehydrogenases involved in mitochondrial fatty-acid β-oxidation in eight different adipose tissues. These changes in gene expression were positively correlated with adipocyte volume in the eight adipose tissues. Based on these results, we hypothesize that acyl-CoA dehydrogenase genes participate in the regulation of fat mass in pigs.
DNA methylation may be involved in regulating the expression of protein-coding genes, resulting in different fat and muscle phenotypes. Using a methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism approach, we obtained 7423 bands by selective amplification of genomic DNA from six different fat depots and two heterogeneous muscle types from Duroc/Landrace/Yorkshire cross-bred pigs. The degrees of DNA methylation, determined by the percentages of hemi- and fully methylated sites relative to the total number of CCGG sites, were similar in male and female pigs for each specific tissue [χ(2) test; P (two-tailed) > 0.05]. Gender bias was therefore ignored. There were significant differences in the degree of DNA methylation among the eight tissue types [χ(2) test; P(total) (two-tailed) = 0.009]. However, similar degrees of methylation were observed among the six fat depots [χ(2) test; P(fat) (two-tailed) = 0.24 > 0.05]and between the two muscle types [χ(2) test; P(muscle) (two-tailed) = 0.76 > 0.05]. We conclude that the degree of DNA methylation differs between porcine fat and muscle tissue, but that the methylation status of a particular tissue type is similar, despite being deposited at different body sites.
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