Institute for Animal Science and Technology, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain.
Commun Biol. 2023 Aug 31;6(1):893. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05266-3.
This study provides a thorough comparison of the plasma metabolome of two rabbit lines divergently selected for intramuscular fat content (IMF). The divergent selection led to a correlated response in the overall adiposity, turning these lines into a valuable animal material to study also the genetics of obesity. Over 900 metabolites were detected, and the adjustment of multivariate models, both discriminant and linear, allowed to identify 322 with differential abundances between lines, which also adjusted linearly to the IMF content. The most affected pathways were those of lipids and amino acids, with differences between lines ranging from 0.23 to 6.04 standard deviations, revealing a limited capacity of the low-IMF line to obtain energy from lipids, and a greater branched-chain amino acids catabolism in the high-IMF line related to its increased IMF content. Additionally, changes in metabolites derived from microbial activity supported its relevant role in the lipid deposition. Future research will focus on the analysis of the metabolomic profile of the cecum content, and on the integration of the several -omics datasets available for these lines, to help disentangle the host and microbiome biological mechanisms involved in the IMF deposition.
本研究对两个在肌肉内脂肪含量（IMF）方面进行了选择的兔系的血浆代谢组进行了全面比较。这种选择导致了整体肥胖度的相关反应，使这些系成为研究肥胖症遗传的有价值的动物材料。检测到超过 900 种代谢物，调整多元模型，包括判别和线性模型，允许识别出 322 种在线系之间存在差异的丰度，这些丰度也与 IMF 含量呈线性调整。受影响最大的途径是脂质和氨基酸途径，系间差异范围从 0.23 到 6.04 个标准差，揭示了低 IMF 系从脂质获取能量的能力有限，以及高 IMF 系中支链氨基酸分解代谢增加与其增加的 IMF 含量有关。此外，来源于微生物活性的代谢物变化支持了其在脂质沉积中的相关作用。未来的研究将集中于分析回肠内容物的代谢组学特征，以及整合这些系的几个可用的组学数据集，以帮助阐明参与 IMF 沉积的宿主和微生物组生物学机制。
