Wu Zhou-Lin, Chen Shi-Yi, Qin Chao, Jia Xianbo, Deng Feilong, Wang Jie, Lai Song-Jia
Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
Liangshan Kehua Dairy Cow Breeding Co., Ltd., Xichang 615000, China.
Genes (Basel). 2020 Feb 19;11(2):219. doi: 10.3390/genes11020219.
Ketosis is one of the most prevalent transition metabolic disorders in dairy cows, and has been intrinsically influenced by both genetic and nutritional factors. However, altered gene expression with respective to dairy cow ketosis has not been addressed yet, especially at the genome-wide level. In this study, we recruited nine Holsteins diagnosed with clinical ketosis and ten healthy controls, for which whole blood samples were collected at both prepartum and postpartum. Four groups of blood samples were defined: from cows with ketosis at prepartum (PCK, N = 9) and postpartum (CK, N = 9), respectively, and controls at prepartum (PHC, N = 10) and postpartum (HC, N = 10). RNA-Seq approach was used for investigating gene expression, by which a total of 27,233 genes were quantified with four billion high-quality reads. Subsequently, we revealed 75 and four differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between sick and control cows at postpartum and prepartum, respectively, which indicated that sick and control cows had similar gene expression patterns at prepartum. Meanwhile, there were 95 DEGs between postpartum and prepartum for sick cows, which showed depressed changes of gene expression during this transition period in comparison with healthy cows (428 DEGs). Functional analyses revealed the associated DEGs with ketosis were mainly involved in biological stress response, ion homeostasis, AA metabolism, energy signaling, and disease related pathways. Finally, we proposed that the expression level of would be potentially used as a new biomarker because it was the only gene that was highly expressed in sick cows at both prepartum and postpartum. These results could significantly help us to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms for incidence and progression of ketosis in dairy cows.
酮病是奶牛最常见的过渡性代谢紊乱疾病之一，其发病本质上受到遗传和营养因素的影响。然而，关于奶牛酮病相关基因表达的改变尚未得到研究，尤其是在全基因组水平上。在本研究中，我们招募了9头被诊断为临床酮病的荷斯坦奶牛和10头健康对照奶牛，在产前和产后分别采集它们的全血样本。我们定义了四组血样：分别来自产前患酮病的奶牛（PCK，N = 9）和产后患酮病的奶牛（CK，N = 9），以及产前对照奶牛（PHC，N = 10）和产后对照奶牛（HC，N = 10）。采用RNA测序方法研究基因表达，通过40亿条高质量reads对总共27,233个基因进行了定量分析。随后，我们分别在产后和产前发现患病奶牛与对照奶牛之间有75个和4个差异表达基因（DEGs），这表明患病奶牛与对照奶牛在产前具有相似的基因表达模式。同时，患病奶牛产后和产前之间有95个DEGs，这表明与健康奶牛（428个DEGs）相比，患病奶牛在此过渡期间基因表达变化较为平缓。功能分析表明，与酮病相关的DEGs主要参与生物应激反应、离子稳态、氨基酸代谢、能量信号传导以及疾病相关途径。最后，我们提出 的表达水平可能作为一种新的生物标志物，因为它是唯一在产前和产后患病奶牛中均高表达的基因。这些结果能够显著帮助我们理解奶牛酮病发生和发展的潜在分子机制。
