Department of Animal Science, University of Tennessee, 2506 River Drive, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 175 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 8;10(1):16786. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73694-w.
Infertility is a challenging phenomenon in cattle that reduces the sustainability of beef production worldwide. Here, we tested the hypothesis that gene expression profiles of protein-coding genes expressed in peripheral white blood cells (PWBCs), and circulating micro RNAs in plasma, are associated with female fertility, measured by pregnancy outcome. We drew blood samples from 17 heifers on the day of artificial insemination and analyzed transcript abundance for 10,496 genes in PWBCs and 290 circulating micro RNAs. The females were later classified as pregnant to artificial insemination, pregnant to natural breeding or not pregnant. We identified 1860 genes producing significant differential coexpression (eFDR < 0.002) based on pregnancy outcome. Additionally, 237 micro RNAs and 2274 genes in PWBCs presented differential coexpression based on pregnancy outcome. Furthermore, using a machine learning prediction algorithm we detected a subset of genes whose abundance could be used for blind categorization of pregnancy outcome. Our results provide strong evidence that transcript abundance in circulating white blood cells is associated with fertility in heifers.
不孕是牛群中一个具有挑战性的现象，它降低了全球牛肉生产的可持续性。在这里，我们测试了这样一个假设，即在外周血白细胞（PWBC）和血浆中循环 microRNAs 中表达的蛋白质编码基因的基因表达谱与通过妊娠结果测量的雌性生育力有关。我们在人工授精当天从 17 头小母牛中抽取血液样本，并分析了 PWBC 中 10496 个基因和 290 个循环 microRNAs 的转录丰度。这些雌性动物后来被分类为人工授精怀孕、自然繁殖怀孕或未怀孕。我们根据妊娠结果确定了 1860 个产生显著差异共表达的基因（eFDR < 0.002）。此外，PWBC 中 237 个 microRNAs 和 2274 个基因根据妊娠结果表现出差异共表达。此外，我们使用机器学习预测算法检测到一组基因的丰度可用于盲分类妊娠结果。我们的研究结果提供了强有力的证据，表明循环白细胞中的转录丰度与小母牛的生育力有关。
