Fetal programming in ruminant animals: understanding the skeletal muscle development to improve meat quality

The Effects of Prenatal Diet on Calf Performance and Perspectives for Fetal Programming Studies: A Meta-Analytical Investigation

“…In this sense, the available scientific evidence demonstrates that there is a smaller window for increasing the pool of myoblasts in animals exposed to nutritional insults during intrauterine development [ 85 ] due to an earlier fusion and differentiation of these cells, associated with changes in the MRFs expressions [ 57 ]. Therefore, as muscle mass is defined by the number (hyperplasia) and size (hypertrophy) of muscle fibers [ 3 ], the nutritional plan during gestation plays a central role in the offspring’s growth potential later in life, as demonstrated in the present study.…”

“…The formation of muscle fibers occurs in two events called primary and secondary myogenesis. Primary myogenesis is concentrated between the conception and the second month of gestation, while secondary myogenesis (when the majority of fibers are formed) occurs between the second and seventh months of gestation [ 3 ]. Myogenesis is controlled by the myogenic regulatory factors’ (MRFs) expressions, including the Myogenic Factor 5 ( MyF5 ), Myogenic Differentiation 1 ( MyoD ), Myogenin ( MyoG ), and Myogenic regulatory factor-4 ( MRF-4 ), whose expressions are in turn regulated by nutritional factors [ 82 ].…”

“…The growth and carcass characteristics of beef cattle are mainly considered to be dependent on genetics and all of the management practices (environmental conditions) that the animals are exposed to in their postnatal lives [ 1 , 2 ]. However, an additional factor, which consists of prenatal nutrition, can also reshape the animal development trajectory and cause persistent long-term consequences—a concept known as fetal programming [ 3 ]. Maternal nutrition affects the nutrient partitioning [ 3 ] and acts as a signal-promoting epigenetic modification [ 4 ], which causes alterations in gene expression [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…However, an additional factor, which consists of prenatal nutrition, can also reshape the animal development trajectory and cause persistent long-term consequences—a concept known as fetal programming [ 3 ]. Maternal nutrition affects the nutrient partitioning [ 3 ] and acts as a signal-promoting epigenetic modification [ 4 ], which causes alterations in gene expression [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Thereafter, in the postnatal life, these effects induced by the intrauterine conditions may be expressed as alterations in the offspring growth [ 8 , 9 ], in the relative masses of muscle and adipose tissue (lean-to-fat ratio) [ 10 ], and the meat yield [ 11 ] and quality [ 12 ].…”

Association between rumen microbiota and marbling grade in Hu sheep

“…The marbling is accumulated through IMF cell hyperplasia and hypertrophy ( Harris et al, 2018 ). Fibro/adipogenic progenitor cells (FAPs) are the main reservoir of IMF cells, and IMF cells primarily develop during the fetal and neonatal stages ( Harris et al, 2018 ; Costa et al, 2021 ). Research has shown that IMF favors the use of glucose for fat synthesis at early ages ( Smith and Crouse, 1984 ).…”