Abstract
BackgroundMaternal nutrition during different stages of pregnancy can induce significant changes in the structure, physiology, and metabolism of the offspring. These changes could have important implications on food animal production especially if these perturbations impact muscle and adipose tissue development. Here, we evaluated the impact of different maternal isoenergetic diets, alfalfa haylage (HY; fiber), corn (CN; starch), and dried corn distillers grains (DG; fiber plus protein plus fat), on the transcriptome of fetal muscle and adipose tissues in sheep.ResultsPrepartum diets were associated with notable gene expression changes in fetal tissues. In longissimus dorsi muscle, a total of 224 and 823 genes showed differential expression (FDR ≤0.05) in fetuses derived from DG vs. CN and HY vs. CN maternal diets, respectively. Several of these significant genes affected myogenesis and muscle differentiation. In subcutaneous and perirenal adipose tissues, 745 and 208 genes were differentially expressed (FDR ≤0.05), respectively, between CN and DG diets. Many of these genes are involved in adipogenesis, lipogenesis, and adipose tissue development. Pathway analysis revealed that several GO terms and KEGG pathways were enriched (FDR ≤0.05) with differentially expressed genes associated with tissue and organ development, chromatin biology, and different metabolic processes.ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence that maternal nutrition during pregnancy can alter the programming of fetal muscle and fat tissues in sheep. The ramifications of the observed gene expression changes, in terms of postnatal growth, body composition, and meat quality of the offspring, warrant future investigation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-1034) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Maternal nutrition during different stages of pregnancy can induce significant changes in the structure, physiology, and metabolism of the offspring
Sequencing of the transcriptome of different fetal sheep tissues To assess the effects of three different maternal diets on the transcriptome of three different fetal tissues in sheep, a total of 36 pooled samples (12 pooled samples per tissue with 4 biological replicates per diet) were analyzed using RNA-sequencing
There is growing evidence that nutritional perturbations during different stages of pregnancy can modify the fetal development of skeletal muscle and adipose tissues, which in turn could have important implications in food animal production [9,21,27,43,44]
Summary
Maternal nutrition during different stages of pregnancy can induce significant changes in the structure, physiology, and metabolism of the offspring These changes could have important implications on food animal production especially if these perturbations impact muscle and adipose tissue development. Fat supplementation in gestating ewes increased cold tolerance and improved survival of their lambs [18] Maternal energy sources, such as starch or fiber, may impact fetal development and subsequent performance of the offspring. Maternal starchbased diets in cattle have been associated with greater calf birth weights compared with fiber-based prepartum diets [19,20] These studies in livestock species clearly show that prepartum diets can affect the performance of the offspring, including postnatal growth, body composition, and carcass weight and may have significant implications in food animal production
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