PSXI-12 Comparative metabolomics of blood plasma from Hanwoo beef cattle at different ages and fed diets with different nutritional levels, by using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

Abstract Blood metabolome can be used to estimate the growth, nutrition, and health status of livestock. The objective of this study is to find the differently expressed metabolome according to ages and nutritional levels in feeds to predict and control cattle performances. We used Hanwoo cattle at different ages that were fed diets with different nutritional levels. One hundred thirty two blood samples were collected from 22 Hanwoo steers at 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 months and compared their blood metabolomes by using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The results of our comparative analysis showed clear discriminations in blood metabolomic profiles among the ages but not between nutritional levels. Based on the results of t-test, fold changes, and partial least square discriminant analysis, 19 metabolites showed high sensitivity for ages. Alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, betaine, carnitine, choline, citrulline, creatine, cysteine, glutamine, glycine, histidine, lactate, leucine, proline, pyruvate, serine, tryptophan, and valine could be directly linked to ages. In particular, three metabolic pathways, ammonia recycling; urea cycle; and glycine and serine metabolism were shown to be enriched with the ages (FDR < 0.05, P < 0.05). Thus, the differently expressed metabolites and their related metabolic pathways in the blood plasma may contribute to the biomarkers which indicate the potential for early growing and fattening of indiviual beef cattle. Our findings may allow for better understanding of the mechanism of cattle growth physiology and metabolism, which is necessary for selecting appropriate feeding strategies to improve beef quality and productivity.