Abstract
BackgroundDelivery of colostrum within the first several hours after birth is vital for establishing successful passive immunity in neonatal dairy calves. However, it is unclear whether a difference in colostrum feeding strategy can affect the development of the calf gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of colostrum feeding time within the first 12 h after birth on the colonic mucosal immune system in neonatal calves using a genome wide transcriptome analysis.ResultsRNA sequencing-based transcriptome analysis of colon tissues collected from 27 male Holstein calves which were randomly assigned to one of three colostrum feeding strategies – (immediately after birth (TRT0); 6 h after birth (TRT6); 12 h after birth (TRT12)) – and euthanized at 51 h of age detected 15,935 ± 210, 15,332 ± 415, and 15,539 ± 440 expressed genes in the colon under three treatments, respectively. The core transcriptome of the colon included 12,678 genes, with enriched “cellular process” and “metabolic process” as the top two biological functions with 802 of them being immune function related genes. Principal component analysis of the colon transcriptomes did not display a clear separation by colostrum feeding strategy and differential abundance analyses showed no significant difference in the expression of immune related genes among the treatments. Additionally, a weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified 4 significant (|correlation| > 0.50 and p ≤ 0.05) gene modules consisting of 122 immune related genes, which were positively or negatively correlated with the abundance of Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the colon.ConclusionTranscriptome analysis indicates that the development of the colonic mucosal immune system in neonatal calves may be independent of the timing of initial colostrum meal within 12 h after birth. Our results also provide a molecular understanding of colonic biological function in neonatal calves and extends knowledge on how host gene expression profiles are associated with the abundance of specific bacterial groups in the colon.
Highlights
Delivery of colostrum within the first several hours after birth is vital for establishing successful passive immunity in neonatal dairy calves
11,613 genes could be annotated by protein annotation through evolutionary relationship (PANTHER) and functional analysis of the core genes showed that the top biochemical processes (Fig. 1a) were “cellular process” (29.4% of genes) and “metabolic process” (26.3% of genes); the top molecular functions (Fig. 1b) were “catalytic activity” (39.8% of genes) and “binding” (39.0% of genes); the top cellular components (Fig. 1c) were “cell part” (40.0% of genes) and “organelle” (25.8% of genes)
Differential gene expression analyses across/ within colostrum treatment and parity showed that almost none of the genes passed a false discovery rate (FDR) correction for multiple testing, with the exception that regulator of G protein signaling 2 (RGS2) was up-regulated in the colon of TRT6_H calves when compared to that of TRT0_H, down-regulated in the colon of TRT12_C calves when compared to that of TRT0_C, and up-regulated
Summary
Delivery of colostrum within the first several hours after birth is vital for establishing successful passive immunity in neonatal dairy calves. It is unclear whether a difference in colostrum feeding strategy can affect the development of the calf gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of colostrum feeding time within the first 12 h after birth on the colonic mucosal immune system in neonatal calves using a genome wide transcriptome analysis. Ingestion and absorption of adequate amounts of colostral IgG, known as He et al BMC Genomics (2018) 19:635 meal more than 2 h after birth in order to achieve successful passive transfer [8], suggesting the importance of feeding colostrum to newborn calves immediately after birth. The objective of this study was to characterize the function of colon tissues during early life using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) based transcriptome analysis and to evaluate whether colonic mucosal immune system development of neonatal calves can be affected by a delayed colostrum feeding
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