Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Copenhagen, Denmark.
BMC Genomics. 2018 Apr 4;19(1):236. doi: 10.1186/s12864-018-4632-y.
Essential oil (EO) dietary supplementation is a new strategy to improve animal health. EO compounds have antiparasitic, antimicrobial, antiviral, antimycotic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory proprieties. Nutrigenomics investigations represent innovative approaches in understanding the relation between diet effect and gene expression related to the animal performance. Few nutrigenomics studies have used a high-throughput RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) approach, despite great potential of RNA-Seq data in gene expression quantification and in co-expression network analyses. Our aim is to use the potential of RNA-Sequencing data in order to evaluate the effect of an EO supplementary diet on gene expression in both lamb liver and muscle.
Using a treatment and sex interaction model, 13 and 4 differentially expressed genes were identified in liver and muscle respectively. Sex-specific differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified in both sexes. Using network based analysis, different clusters of co-expressed genes that were highly correlated to the diet were detected in males vs. females, in agreement with DE analysis. A total of five regulatory genes in liver tissue associated to EO diet were identified: DNAJB9, MANF, UFM1, CTNNLA1 and NFX1. Our study reveals a sex-dependent effect of EO diet in both tissues, and an influence on the expression of genes mainly involved in immune, inflammatory and stress pathway.
Our analysis suggests a sex-dependent effect of the EO dietary supplementation on the expression profile of both liver and muscle tissues. We hypothesize that the presence of EOs could have beneficial effects on wellness of male lamb and further analyses are needed to understand the biological mechanisms behind the different effect of EO metabolites based on sex. Using lamb as a model for nutrigenomics studies, it could be interesting to investigate the effects of EO diets in other species and in humans.
精油（EO）饮食补充是改善动物健康的新策略。EO 化合物具有抗寄生虫、抗菌、抗病毒、抗真菌、抗氧化和抗炎特性。营养基因组学研究代表了理解饮食效果与与动物性能相关的基因表达之间关系的创新方法。尽管 RNA-Seq 数据在基因表达定量和共表达网络分析方面具有巨大潜力，但很少有营养基因组学研究使用高通量 RNA-Seq 方法。我们的目的是利用 RNA-Seq 数据的潜力，评估补充 EO 饮食对羔羊肝脏和肌肉中基因表达的影响。
使用处理和性别交互模型，分别在肝脏和肌肉中鉴定出 13 个和 4 个差异表达基因。在两性中都鉴定出了性别特异性差异表达（DE）基因。使用基于网络的分析，在雄性和雌性中检测到与饮食高度相关的共表达基因的不同聚类，与 DE 分析一致。在肝脏组织中总共鉴定出 5 个与 EO 饮食相关的调节基因：DNAJB9、MANF、UFM1、CTNNLA1 和 NFX1。我们的研究揭示了 EO 饮食在两性组织中的性别依赖性影响，以及对主要参与免疫、炎症和应激途径的基因表达的影响。
我们的分析表明，EO 饮食补充对肝脏和肌肉组织的表达谱有性别依赖性影响。我们假设 EO 的存在可能对雄性羔羊的健康有益，需要进一步分析才能了解基于性别的 EO 代谢物不同影响背后的生物学机制。使用羔羊作为营养基因组学研究的模型，研究 EO 饮食对其他物种和人类的影响可能会很有趣。
