Abstract
Supplementing pig diets with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) may produce meat products with an increased n-3 fatty acid content, and the combined antioxidants addition could prevent lipid oxidation in the feed. However, to date, the effects of these bioactive compounds at the molecular level in porcine skeletal muscle are mostly unknown. This study aimed to analyse changes in the Longissimus thoracis transcriptome of 35 pigs fed three diets supplemented with: linseed (L); linseed, vitamin E and Selenium (LES) or linseed and plant-derived polyphenols (LPE). Pigs were reared from 80.8 ± 5.6 kg to 151.8 ± 9.9 kg. After slaughter, RNA-Seq was performed and 1182 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were submitted to functional analysis. The L vs LES comparison did not show differences, while L vs LPE showed 1102 DEGs and LES vs LPE 80 DEGs. LPE compared to the other groups showed the highest number of up-regulated genes involved in preserving muscle metabolism and structure. Results enlighten that the combined supplementation of bioactive lipids (n-3 PUFA from linseed) with plant extracts as a source of polyphenols increases, compared to the only addition of linseed, the expression of genes involved in mRNA metabolic processes and transcriptional regulation, glucose uptake and, finally, in supporting muscle development and physiology. These results improve the knowledge of the biological effect of bioactive compounds in Longissimus thoracis muscle, and sustain the growing interest over their use in pig production.
Highlights
Supplementing pig diets with n-3 PUFA is a strategy to obtain healthier meat products containing more unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) and a lower n-6/n-3 ratio, in view of the general concern on the high consumption of saturated FAs from red meat, which may increase the risk of disease such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [1]
Several studies showed that supplementing farm animal diets with functional ingredients such as antioxidants can improve the nutritional quality of meat products by reducing lipid oxidation [2,3,4,5,6,7], and many functional additives containing vitamin E and polyphenols are already used in pig production
RNA-Seq analysis resulted in a total of 1544 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among the three diet comparisons (L vs LES, L vs linseed and plant-derived polyphenols (LPE), LES vs LPE) with several DEGs common in more than one comparison, for a total of 1734 DEGs (Fig 1; Table 2; S3 Table)
Summary
Supplementing pig diets with n-3 PUFA is a strategy to obtain healthier meat products containing more unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) and a lower n-6/n-3 ratio, in view of the general concern on the high consumption of saturated FAs from red meat, which may increase the risk of disease such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [1]. Several studies showed that supplementing farm animal diets with functional ingredients such as antioxidants can improve the nutritional quality of meat products by reducing lipid oxidation [2,3,4,5,6,7], and many functional additives containing vitamin E and polyphenols are already used in pig production. The few studies reported in literature evidenced that polyphenols may influence the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, inflammation and extracellular matrix remodelling [10,11] even if the role of these compounds in pig skeletal muscle needs to be better elucidated at the molecular level [13]. The aim of the present research is to analyse the transcriptome of Longissimus thoracis muscle of pigs fed different diets supplemented with linseed, vitamin E and plant extracts as a source of polyphenols. This research aimed to enlighten the effects of the different diets on skeletal muscle gene expression and to compare changes in the transcript profile among diets
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