1
|
Kuraz Abebe B, Wang J, Guo J, Wang H, Li A, Zan L. A review of the role of epigenetic studies for intramuscular fat deposition in beef cattle. Gene 2024; 908:148295. [PMID: 38387707 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Intramuscular fat (IMF) deposition profoundly influences meat quality and economic value in beef cattle production. Meanwhile, contemporary developments in epigenetics have opened new outlooks for understanding the molecular basics of IMF regulation, and it has become a key area of research for world scholars. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to provide insight and synthesis into the intricate relationship between epigenetic mechanisms and IMF deposition in beef cattle. The methodology involves a thorough analysis of existing literature, including pertinent books, academic journals, and online resources, to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of epigenetic studies in IMF deposition in beef cattle. This review summarizes the contemporary studies in epigenetic mechanisms in IMF regulation, high-resolution epigenomic mapping, single-cell epigenomics, multi-omics integration, epigenome editing approaches, longitudinal studies in cattle growth, environmental epigenetics, machine learning in epigenetics, ethical and regulatory considerations, and translation to industry practices from perspectives of IMF deposition in beef cattle. Moreover, this paper highlights DNA methylation, histone modifications, acetylation, phosphorylation, ubiquitylation, non-coding RNAs, DNA hydroxymethylation, epigenetic readers, writers, and erasers, chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing, whole genome bisulfite sequencing, epigenome-wide association studies, and their profound impact on the expression of crucial genes governing adipogenesis and lipid metabolism. Nutrition and stress also have significant influences on epigenetic modifications and IMF deposition. The key findings underscore the pivotal role of epigenetic studies in understanding and enhancing IMF deposition in beef cattle, with implications for precision livestock farming and ethical livestock management. In conclusion, this review highlights the crucial significance of epigenetic pathways and environmental factors in affecting IMF deposition in beef cattle, providing insightful information for improving the economics and meat quality of cattle production.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Belete Kuraz Abebe
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China; Department of Animal Science, Werabe University, P.O. Box 46, Werabe, Ethiopia
| | - Jianfang Wang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China
| | - Juntao Guo
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongbao Wang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China
| | - Anning Li
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China
| | - Linsen Zan
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China; National Beef Cattle Improvement Center, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, People's Republic of China.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Giannuzzi D, Capra E, Bisutti V, Vanzin A, Marsan PA, Cecchinato A, Pegolo S. Methylome-wide analysis of milk somatic cells upon subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci 2024; 107:1805-1820. [PMID: 37939836 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2023-23821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023]
Abstract
Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind bovine mastitis is fundamental for improving the management of this disease, which continues to be of major concern for the dairy industry, especially in its subclinical form. Disease severity and progression depend on numerous aspects, such as livestock genetics, and the interaction between the causative agent, the host, and the environment. In this context, epigenetic mechanisms have proven to have a role in controlling the response of the animal to inflammation. Therefore, in this study we aimed to explore genome-wide DNA methylation of milk somatic cells (SC) in healthy cows (n = 15) and cows affected by naturally occurring subclinical mastitis by Streptococcus agalactiae (n = 12) and Prototheca spp. (n = 11), to better understand the role of SC methylome in the host response to disease. Differentially methylated regions (DMR) were evaluated comparing: (1) Strep. agalactiae-infected versus healthy; (2) Prototheca-infected versus healthy, and (3) mastitis versus healthy and (4) Strep. agalactiae-infected versus Prototheca-infected. The functional analysis was performed at 2 levels. To begin with, we extracted differentially methylated genes (DMG) from promoter DMR, which were analyzed using the Cytoscape ClueGO plug-in. Coupled with this DMG-driven approach, all the genes associated with promoter-methylated regions were fed to the Pathifier algorithm. From the DMR analysis, we identified 1,081 hypermethylated and 361 hypomethylated promoter regions in Strep. agalactiae-infected animals, while 1,514 hypermethylated and 358 hypomethylated promoter regions were identified in Prototheca-infected animals, when compared with the healthy controls. When considering infected animals as a whole group (regardless of the pathogen), we found 1,576 hypermethylated and 460 hypomethylated promoter regions. Both pathogens were associated with methylation differences in genes involved in pathways related to meiosis, reproduction and tissue remodeling. Exploring the whole methylome, in subclinically infected cows we observed a strong deregulation of immune-related pathways, such as nuclear factor kB and toll-like receptors signaling pathways, and of energy-related pathways such as the tricarboxylic acid cycle and unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis. In conclusion, no evident pathogen-specific SC methylome signature was detected in the present study. Overall, we observed a clear regulation of host immune response driven by DNA methylation upon subclinical mastitis. Further studies on a larger cohort of animals are needed to validate our results and to possibly identify a unique SC methylome that signifies pathogen-specific alterations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- D Giannuzzi
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Italy
| | - E Capra
- Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology, National Research Council (IBBA CNR), 26900, Lodi, Italy
| | - V Bisutti
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Italy.
| | - A Vanzin
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Italy
| | - P Ajmone Marsan
- Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition (DIANA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122, Piacenza, Italy
| | - A Cecchinato
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Italy
| | - S Pegolo
- Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Ding W, Kaur D, Horvath S, Zhou W. Comparative epigenome analysis using Infinium DNA methylation BeadChips. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:6974838. [PMID: 36617464 PMCID: PMC10147478 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The arrival of the Infinium DNA methylation BeadChips for mice and other nonhuman mammalian species has outpaced the development of the informatics that supports their use for epigenetics study in model organisms. Here, we present informatics infrastructure and methods to allow easy DNA methylation analysis on multiple species, including domesticated animals and inbred laboratory mice (in SeSAMe version 1.16.0+). First, we developed a data-driven analysis pipeline covering species inference, genome-specific data preprocessing and regression modeling. We targeted genomes of 310 species and 37 inbred mouse strains and showed that genome-specific preprocessing prevents artifacts and yields more accurate measurements than generic pipelines. Second, we uncovered the dynamics of the epigenome evolution in different genomic territories and tissue types through comparative analysis. We identified a catalog of inbred mouse strain-specific methylation differences, some of which are linked to the strains' immune, metabolic and neurological phenotypes. By streamlining DNA methylation array analysis for undesigned genomes, our methods extend epigenome research to broad species contexts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wubin Ding
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Diljeet Kaur
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Steve Horvath
- Dept. of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.,Altos Labs, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Wanding Zhou
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Chen X, Duan X, Chong Q, Li C, Xiao H, Chen S. Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:ani13020203. [PMID: 36670743 PMCID: PMC9854497 DOI: 10.3390/ani13020203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Disease risk is a persistent problem in domestic cattle farming, while economic traits are the main concern. This study aimed to reveal the epigenetic basis for differences between zebu (Bos indicus) and taurine cattle (Bos taurus) in disease, disease resistance, and economic traits, and provide a theoretical basis for the genetic improvement of domestic cattle. In this study, whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) was used to analyze the whole-genome methylation of spleen and liver samples from Yunnan zebu and Holstein cattle. In the genome-wide methylation pattern analysis, it was found that the methylation pattern of all samples was dominated by the CG type, which accounted for >94.9%. The DNA methylation levels of different functional regions and transcriptional elements in the CG background varied widely. However, the methylation levels of different samples in the same functional regions or transcriptional elements did not differ significantly. In addition, we identified a large number of differentially methylation region (DMR) in both the spleen and liver groups, of which 4713 and 4663 were annotated to functional elements, and most of them were annotated to the intronic and exonic regions of genes. GO and KEGG functional analysis of the same differentially methylation region (DMG) in the spleen and liver groups revealed that significantly enriched pathways were involved in neurological, disease, and growth functions. As a result of the results of DMR localization, we screened six genes (DNM3, INPP4B, PLD, PCYT1B, KCNN2, and SLIT3) that were tissue-specific candidates for economic traits, disease, and disease resistance in Yunnan zebu. In this study, DNA methylation was used to construct links between genotypes and phenotypes in domestic cattle, providing useful information for further screening of epigenetic molecular markers in zebu and taurine cattle.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiaona Chen
- School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
- School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Xinyu Duan
- School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Qingqing Chong
- School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Chunqing Li
- School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Heng Xiao
- School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Shanyuan Chen
- School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-186-8712-2260
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Bruscadin JJ, Cardoso TF, da Silva Diniz WJ, de Souza MM, Afonso J, Vieira D, Malheiros J, Andrade BGN, Petrini J, Ferraz JBS, Zerlotini A, Mourão GB, Coutinho LL, de Almeida Regitano LC. Differential Allele-Specific Expression Revealed Functional Variants and Candidate Genes Related to Meat Quality Traits in B. indicus Muscle. Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:genes13122336. [PMID: 36553605 PMCID: PMC9777870 DOI: 10.3390/genes13122336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2022] [Revised: 12/03/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditional transcriptomics approaches have been used to identify candidate genes affecting economically important livestock traits. Regulatory variants affecting these traits, however, remain under covered. Genomic regions showing allele-specific expression (ASE) are under the effect of cis-regulatory variants, being useful for improving the accuracy of genomic selection models. Taking advantage of the better of these two methods, we investigated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in regions showing differential ASE (DASE SNPs) between contrasting groups for beef quality traits. For these analyses, we used RNA sequencing data, imputed genotypes and genomic estimated breeding values of muscle-related traits from 190 Nelore (Bos indicus) steers. We selected 40 contrasting unrelated samples for the analysis (N = 20 animals per contrasting group) and used a beta-binomial model to identify ASE SNPs in only one group (i.e., DASE SNPs). We found 1479 DASE SNPs (FDR ≤ 0.05) associated with 55 beef-quality traits. Most DASE genes were involved with tenderness and muscle homeostasis, presenting a co-expression module enriched for the protein ubiquitination process. The results overlapped with epigenetics and phenotype-associated data, suggesting that DASE SNPs are potentially linked to cis-regulatory variants affecting simultaneously the transcription and phenotype through chromatin state modulation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Jessica Bruscadin
- Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos 13560-000, SP, Brazil
- Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos 13560-000, SP, Brazil
| | | | | | | | - Juliana Afonso
- Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos 13560-000, SP, Brazil
| | - Dielson Vieira
- Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos 13560-000, SP, Brazil
- Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Jessica Malheiros
- Federal University of Latin American Integration-UNILA, Foz do Iguaçu 85851-000, PR, Brazil
| | | | - Juliana Petrini
- Center for Functional Genomics, Department of Animal Science, 13400-000, University of São Paulo (ESALQ—USP), Piracicaba 13400-000, SP, Brazil
| | - José Bento Sterman Ferraz
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMVZ—USP), Pirassununga 13630-000, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Gerson Barreto Mourão
- Center for Functional Genomics, Department of Animal Science, 13400-000, University of São Paulo (ESALQ—USP), Piracicaba 13400-000, SP, Brazil
| | - Luiz Lehmann Coutinho
- Center for Functional Genomics, Department of Animal Science, 13400-000, University of São Paulo (ESALQ—USP), Piracicaba 13400-000, SP, Brazil
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Bruscadin JJ, Cardoso TF, da Silva Diniz WJ, Afonso J, de Souza MM, Petrini J, Nascimento Andrade BG, da Silva VH, Ferraz JBS, Zerlotini A, Mourão GB, Coutinho LL, de Almeida Regitano LC. Allele-specific expression reveals functional SNPs affecting muscle-related genes in bovine. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA (BBA) - GENE REGULATORY MECHANISMS 2022; 1865:194886. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2022.194886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Revised: 09/27/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
|