Abstract
The recent technologies that have led to the new field of functional genomics (how the genome of an organism regulates homeostasis and responds to stimuli) are providing a clearer understanding of how organisms interact with their environment and in particular their diet. We are beginning to learn how the diet may have long-term influence on performance and health. A form of epigenetic regulation has been recently described called fetal "programming". Fueled by epidemiological data the "fetal origins" hypothesis suggests that a poor in utero environment resulting from maternal dietary or placental insufficiency may "program" susceptibility in the fetus to cardiovascular or metabolic disorders. We have observed similar apparent programming by dietary manipulation in the chicken. When birds are challenged with a diet low in phosphorus (P) for 90 hours post-hatch they obtain the ability to better utilize P later in life. This increased retention of P from the diet can partially be explained by an enduring increase in the expression of the intestine-specific Na/P cotransporter (NaPcoT) gene during programming as well as later in life when fed P restricted diets. The resulting data provide the first evidence for neonatal programming of gene expression in an oviparous species.
Highlights
In the current scientific era of the genome the ability to completely decipher the entire genetic code for an organism has provided great insight into the organization of genes and chromosome structure
The role of epigenetics has become a hot bed of activity in the human arena and spawned a post-genome sequencing effort to form the International Human Epigenome Project (IHEP) and characterize how the epigenome differs from tissue to tissue and how it responds to environmental changes
Examination of the allelic expression of mannose 6-phosphate/insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor (M6P/IGF2R) and insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), imprinted in mammals showed that neither M6P/IGF2R nor IGF2 are imprinted in the chicken (Nolan et al, 2001)
Summary
Nutritional genomics: a practical approach by early life conditioning with dietary phosphorus. When birds are challenged with a diet low in phosphorus (P) for 90 hours post-hatch they obtain the ability to better utilize P later in life. This increased retention of P from the diet can partially be explained by an enduring increase in the expression of the intestine-specific Na/P cotransporter (NaPcoT) gene during programming as well as later in life when fed P restricted diets. Esta maior retenção de P da dieta pode ser parcialmente explicada por um aumento permanente na expressão do gene do cotransoprtador Na/P intestinal durante a programação, bem como mais tarde na vida quando alimentadas com dietas P restrito.
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