Abstract
Simple SummaryThe study of gene expression at the transcriptome level provides rich information on the genes and metabolic pathways influencing relevant phenotypic traits. This study deals with the comparison of muscle transcriptome between two autochthonous pig breeds from Serbia (Mangalitsa and Moravka) as well as between Mangalitsa pigs fed a tannin-supplemented diet vs. a control one. The results provide a wide characterization of genes, pathways and potential regulatory mechanisms affecting muscle traits which differ among the experimental groups. The generated information improves the scientific knowledge on the cellular and metabolic basis of muscle growth, oxidative stability and fatness in pigs, and provides abundant candidate genes which could be responsible for phenotypic variation, and could be useful in future studies and selection approaches.This work was aimed at evaluating loin transcriptome and metabolic pathway differences between the two main Serbian local pig breeds with divergent characteristics regarding muscle growth and fatness, as well as exploring nutrigenomic effects of tannin supplementation in Mangalitsa (MA) pigs. The study comprised 24 Mangalitsa and 10 Moravka (MO) males, which were kept under identical management conditions. Mangalitsa animals were divided in two nutritional groups (n = 12) receiving a standard (control) or tannin–supplemented diet (1.5%; MAT). Moravka pigs were fed the standard mixture. All animals were slaughtered at a similar age; 120 kg of average live weight (LW) and loin tissue was used for RNA-seq analysis. Results showed 306 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) according to breed, enriched in genes involved in growth, lipid metabolism, protein metabolism and muscle development, such as PDK4, FABP4, MYOD1 and STAT3, as well as a relevant number of genes involved in mitochondrial respiratory activity (MT-NDs, NDUFAs among others). Oxidative phosphorylation was the most significantly affected pathway, activated in Mangalitsa muscle, revealing the basis of a different muscle metabolism. Also, many other relevant pathways were affected by breed and involved in oxidative stress response, fat accumulation and development of skeletal muscle. Results also allowed the identification of potential regulators and causal networks such as those controlled by FLCN, PPARGC1A or PRKAB1 with relevant regulatory roles on DEGs involved in mitochondrial and lipid metabolism, or IL3 and TRAF2 potentially controlling DEGs involved in muscle development. The Tannin effect on transcriptome was small, with only 23 DEGs, but included interesting ones involved in lipid deposition such as PPARGC1B. The results indicate a significant effect of the breed on muscle tissue gene expression, affecting relevant biological pathways and allowing the identification of strong regulatory candidate genes to underlie the gene expression and phenotypic differences between the compared groups.
Highlights
Pork is one of the most widely consumed meats in the world
Mangalitsa and Moravka, the two main autochthonous pig breeds raised in Republic of Serbia, differing phenotypically and genetically [1,2,5,6], have been scarcely explored at the molecular or genetic levels
Mangalitsa and Moravka breeds as well as tannin-fed Mangalitsa pigs were used for transcriptomic analysis by RNA-seq, in order to better understand the effects of breed and diet on longissimus dorsi muscle metabolism
Summary
Pork is one of the most widely consumed meats in the world. In western countries, pig production mostly relies on a few commercial breeds subjected to intensive breeding practices, and on numerous autochthonous breeds, which are usually well adapted to the environment and suitable for outdoor and organic production and for manufacturing of traditional pork meat products. Moravka is a breed with combined production abilities, characterized by a higher meat percentage and longer carcass with less fat, usually in meat, than Mangalitsa [4]. Regarding their genetic origin the Moravka breed is an admixed population [5,6] which was created by unsystematic crossings of the extinct indigenous breed Šumadinka with Berkshire and possibly with Yorkshire [2], while the Mangalitsa breed is derived from the primitive Šumadinka but without crossing with improved genotypes and without Asian introgression [1,6]
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