The meat quality of different pig breeds is associated with their different muscle tissue physiological processes, which involves a large variety of genes related with muscle fat and energy metabolism. Understanding the differences of biological processes of muscle after slaughter is helpful to reveal the meat quality development of different breeds. Therefore, eight native Large Black pigs (BP), with high fat content in meat, and seven cross-bred commercial pigs (CP), which had a high feed efficiency with high lean meat, were used to investigate the differences in their meat quality and RNA transcriptomes. The average daily gain (ADG) and hot carcass weight (HCW) of CP were higher than BP, but the back-fat thickness of BP was higher than CP (p < 0.05). The CP had higher a* (redness) but lower h (hue angle) than BP (p < 0.05). The metmyoglobin (MMb) percentage of CP was higher (p < 0.05) than BP. The fat content and oxygen consumption of longissimus dorsi (LD) muscles in BP were higher (p < 0.05) than CP. BP had higher monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) content, but CP had higher polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) content (p < 0.05). The RNA-seq data highlighted 201 genes differentially expressed between the two groups (corrected false discovery rate (FDR) p < 0.05), with 75 up-regulated and 126 down-regulated genes in BP compared with CP using the fold change (FC). The real-time PCR was used to validate the results of RNA-seq for eight genes, and the genes related to lipid and energy metabolism were highly expressed in BP (p < 0.05). Based on the results, BP had superior intramuscular fat content to CP, while the growth performance of CP was better, and the transcriptomic differences between these two groups of pigs may cause the meat quality and growth performance variance.
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) modulate cellular metabolic functions and gene expression. This study investigated the impacts of EPA and DHA on gene expression and morphological changes during adipogenic inducement in C2C12 myoblasts. Cells were cultured and treated with differentiation medium with and without 50 μM EPA and DHA. Cells treated with fatty acids had noticeable lipid droplets, but no formation of myotubes compared to control group cells. The expression levels of key genes relevant to adipogenesis and inflammation were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in cells treated with fatty acids. Genes associated with myogenesis and mitochondrial biosynthesis and function had lower (P < 0.05) expression with fatty acids supplementation. Moreover, fatty acid treatment reduced (P < 0.05) oxygen consumption rate in the differentiated cells. This suggested blocking myotube formation through supplementation with EPA and DHA drove myoblasts to enter the quiescent state and enabled adipogenic trans-differentiation of the myoblasts. Data also suggested that overdosage of EPA and DHA during gestation may drive fetal mesenchymal stem cell differentiation to the fate of adipogenesis and have a long-term effect on childhood obesity.
Seventeen crossbred lambs were assigned randomly to low-protein (LP; 8% crude protein [CP]; n = 9) and high-protein (HP; 13% CP; n = 8) diets for 9 weeks. The final body weight, average daily feed intake (ADFI), and average daily gain (ADG) of the HP lambs were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the LP lambs; however, gain to feed ratio (G:F) for the LP lambs was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the HP lambs. Hot carcass weight (HCW), adjusted fat thickness, and drip loss of longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle were significantly higher (P < 0.05) for the HP than LP lambs. In contrast, instrumental color values L*, a*, b*, C*, and hue angle (H) of meat from the LP lambs scored significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the HP lambs. The LD muscle from HP lambs had significantly greater CLA of cis-9 trans-11 isomer (P < 0.05) than the LP lambs. The gene expression of metabolism and meat quality-related genes of LP was significantly higher than HP (P < 0.05). These results suggest that a higher dietary CP level promotes growth performance for finishing lambs, whereas lower dietary CP level is beneficial for meat quality, especially when evaluating color characteristics in the final product.crude protein level, finishing lambs, gene expression, growth performance, meat quality | INTRODUCTIONRecently, studying the resilience of animals facing environmental challenging is not only becoming critical in animal industry but also in ensuring sustainable agriculture (Wilkes et al., 2012). Decreasing crude protein (CP) levels in diets of small ruminants reduces excess N excretion and feed cost for producers (Cole et al., 2003). It was reported that lambs need less CP content during finishing period compared with immature stage (National Research Council, 1985).The feasibility of providing the CP level, which is lower than the requirement of finishing lambs, is still unknown.Animal performance and meat quality characteristics are two of the most important measures of production value because of the strong relationship between industry income and consumer preferences (Grunert et al., 2004). Nutritional deficiencies in young, growing animals are reflected more quickly than in mature animals due to their higher basal metabolic rate (National Research Council, 1958; USDA & Grazing Lands Technology Institute, 1997). Energy and protein are two important nutrients related to growth, protein accretion, and meat quality traits in food animals. The amount of tissue deposited as carcass components is primarily determined by the nutrition available for growth and development, especially protein and energy nutrients
Early piglet mortality due to chilling is a leading cause of economic loss in swine production. Non-shivering thermogenesis can be used by piglets to increase survivability through the utilization of brown adipose tissue (BAT). Recent studies suggest metformin hydrochloride induces “browning,” or transdifferentiation, of white adipocytes into brown adipocytes and increases BAT formation. Uncoupling proteins (UPC) are the principal markers of BAT. Sow treatment with metformin may increase BAT deposition in neonatal piglets. The objective of this study was to determine if metformin contributed to the expression of brown adipocyte markers UCP1, PRDM16, and PGC1α. To further investigate this, mouse 3T3 adipocyte cells were cultured, subdivided into two 6-well plates, and differentiated into mature white adipocytes. Oil Red O staining confirmed mature adipocytes with the presence of large lipid droplets. The experimental group was treated with 1.25 mM metformin hydrochloride (MET). The control group received only the growth medium (CON). The OD260nm/OD280nm was used to assess the quality of the extracted RNA. PCR analysis showed a significant difference in the expression of UCP1 of the MET cells (P < 0.05). PRDM16 and PGC1α expression showed no significant difference in the two groups (P > 0.10). These results indicate that metformin treatment at 1.25 mM contributed to the upregulation of UCP1 and the transdifferentiation of white adipocytes into brown adipocytes. This suggests the potential use of metformin in the upregulation of UCP to induce BAT formation.
Dietary manipulations to include tannins can change the proportion and amounts of N excreted in the urine and feces as well as improve N-use efficiency in ruminants. This study was conducted to investigate effects on animal digestion parameters of adding different proportions of sericea lespedeza hay (SL) to alfalfa silage. Alfalfa was harvested in June 2018 at 75% bloom, chopped, and then packed at 55% moisture into plastic-lined bins and allowed to ensile for 3 months. Alfalfa silage was either offered alone or mixed with 9, 18, or 27% SL on a DM basis. These diets were offered randomly for ad libitum consumption to 16 ewes (41.8 ± 4.61 kg BW) in a randomized complete block design experiment with 2 periods to provide 4 observations per treatment per experimental period, each consisting of a 14-d dietary adaptation period followed by 5 d of total fecal and urine collection. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS and orthogonal linear and quadratic trend analyses were tested. Digestibility (%) of DM and OM and digestible DM and OM intake (g/kg BW) decreased linearly (P < 0.05) with increasing SL addition to the diet. Digestibility of NDF and ADF decreased linearly (P < 0.01) with increasing SL, and apparent absorption (%) of N decreased linearly (P < 0.05) with increasing SL in the diet. Urinary N excretions (g/d) tended (P = 0.10) to decrease linearly while fecal N (g/day) tended to increase (P = 0.10) linearly with increasing SL proportion in the diet. In this study, supplementation with sericea lespedeza as a tannin source to alfalfa silage decreased forage digestibility and digestible organic matter intake and did not positively influence nitrogen use. The study was supported in part by USDA-ARS specific cooperative agreement 58-3655-4-052 and by USDA NIFA grant 2018-67019-27804.
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