Dai Bai, Zhang Meng, Yuan Jian-Long, Ren Li-Qing, Han Xiao-Yu, Liu Dong-Jun
State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Regulation and Breeding of Grassland Livestock, School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010070, China.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Nov 20;9(12):1002. doi: 10.3390/ani9121002.
DNA methylation alteration is frequently observed in exogenous gene silencing and may play important roles in the genetic stability of traits. Cashmere is derived from the secondary hair follicles (SHFs) of cashmere goats, which are morphogenetically distinct from primary hair follicles (PHFs). Here, in light of having initially produced 15 T4 overexpression (T4-OE) cashmere goats which had more SHFs than the wild type (WT) goats, and produced more cashmere, we produced T4-OE offsprings both via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and via natural mating (NM). However, the desired trait exhibited lower fixation in the line-bred offspring compared to the SCNT offspring. Integrative analysis of methylation and transcriptional profiles showed that this might be due to the influence of methylation on the expression of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between generations, which was mutually consistent with the results of the functional and pathway enrichment analysis of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and DEGs. Overall, our study systematically describes the DNA methylation characteristics between generations of cashmere goats and provides a basis for improving genetic stability.
DNA甲基化改变在外源基因沉默中经常被观察到，并且可能在性状的遗传稳定性中发挥重要作用。羊绒来自绒山羊的次级毛囊（SHFs），其在形态发生上与初级毛囊（PHFs）不同。在此，鉴于最初产生了15只T4过表达（T4-OE）绒山羊，其SHFs比野生型（WT）山羊更多，并且产绒量更高，我们通过体细胞核移植（SCNT）和自然交配（NM）产生了T4-OE后代。然而，与SCNT后代相比，在品系繁育后代中所需性状的固定率较低。甲基化和转录谱的综合分析表明，这可能是由于甲基化对两代之间差异表达基因（DEGs）表达的影响，这与差异甲基化区域（DMRs）和DEGs的功能及通路富集分析结果相互一致。总体而言，我们的研究系统地描述了绒山羊两代之间的DNA甲基化特征，并为提高遗传稳定性提供了依据。
