The Role of Feed Restriction on DNA Methylation, Feed Efficiency, Metabolome, Biochemical Profile, and Progesterone Patterns in the Female Filial Generation (F1) Obtained From Early Feed Restricted Ewes (F0).

Sonia Andrés,F Javier Giráldez,Olimpio Montero,Alba Martín,Ole Madsen

doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.779054

Abstract

Deficient management of replacement animals in the farm during early developmental windows may promote adverse programming effects on reproductive traits and subsequent transmission to the next generation. In this sense, DNA methylation profiles allow researchers to decode epigenetic regulation mechanisms in mammals and identify novel candidate genes correlated with phenotype differences in both dams and offspring. Therefore, improving knowledge in the field of epigenetics and intergenerational effects caused by prenatal and postnatal early nutritional events (e.g., feed restriction) is crucial for refining strategies dedicated to animal breeding. In this study, we determined differences in the global blood methylation patterns, biochemical profile, and metabolome of ewe lambs (F1) born from either early feed restricted dams (F0-RES) or fed ad libitum (F0-ADL). Our data show that functional categories such as those related to cellular processes, phosphorylation, nervous system, immunity response, or reproductive function were enriched significantly in the F1-RES lambs due to differences in the methylation of genes in these categories. These F1-RES lambs did not show differences in feed efficiency during the replacement period but presented higher levels of insulin and triglycerides and reduced concentration of progesterone, whereas the metabolome profile demonstrated variations in the bile acid composition when compared with the F1-ADL lambs. Taken together, all these results suggest that intergenerational effects caused by early feed restriction of dams (F0) may persist in the F1 female lambs with negative consequences on genes involved in cellular processes and reproductive traits.

Highlights

In most of the developed and developing countries, there is growing interest in improving the management of replacement and breeding sheep females to minimize the consequences of adverse environmental effects, enhancing reproductive performance, productivity, and efficiency (Greenwood et al, 2017)
Considering that the first ovulation is reached when serum progesterone levels are above 0.4 ng/ml (Wright et al, 2002), no differences were observed in the age of puberty of F1 lambs (206 vs. 200 days, P = 0.518)
The mean concentration of progesterone in the serum of F1-RES lambs was significantly lower when compared with the F1-ADL group (1.98 vs. 1.30 ng/ml, P = 0.018)

Summary

Introduction

In most of the developed and developing countries, there is growing interest in improving the management of replacement and breeding sheep females to minimize the consequences of adverse environmental effects, enhancing reproductive performance (e.g., prolificacy and age at first lambing), productivity, and efficiency (Greenwood et al, 2017). In this sense, prenatal and early postnatal periods are critical developmental windows in which the phenotype of an organism is responsive to environmental factors (e.g., diet). In early feed restricted lambs, implications for important phenotypic traits such as marbling, fattening, feed efficiency (Santos et al, 2018b,c), or the onset of puberty (Santos et al, 2018a) have been demonstrated

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Conclusion