Microarray analysis of Longissimus thoracis muscle gene expressions in vitamin A‐restricted Japanese Black steers in middle fattening stage

Abstract

Vitamin A (VA) restriction in beef cattle improves meat marbling; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. We performed microarray analysis to clarify the effect of VA restriction on Longissimus thoracis gene expressions in Japanese Black steers. Six Japanese Black steers 13-14 months of age were divided into two groups: S group (n = 3), which received VA supplementation, and R group (n = 3), in which dietary VA intake was restricted. Steers were fattened for 7 months, following which tissue samples were obtained. Extracted RNA samples were analyzed by Affymetrix Genechip Bovine Genome Array. Lists of genes highly expressed in the R and S groups were obtained. The lists were functionally interpreted using functional annotation software, DAVID. In the R and S groups, 48 and 40 genes were significantly highly expressed, respectively. The gene list of the R group included CD36, LPL, GPAM, DGAT2, and SCD and additional genes annotated 'PPAR signaling pathway,' 'lipid biosynthesis' and 'mitochondrion,' whereas that of the S group included COL1A2, FN1 and DCN and additional genes annotated 'extracellular matrix.' Changes in the expression of these genes are possibly involved in marbling improvement in beef cattle by VA restriction.

Roles of vitamin A in the regulation of fatty acid synthesis

“…Vitamin A restriction in beef cattle has been shown to improve the marbling scores in Japanese Black cattle[ 65 ]. Changes in the expression of genes for lipid synthesis are observed in the muscle tissues of the Japanese Black steers with the vitamin A restriction, and associated with the marbling phenotype[ 66 ]. However, semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction did not find any significant change of Scd mRNA in the vitamin A restriction group[ 66 ].…”

“…Changes in the expression of genes for lipid synthesis are observed in the muscle tissues of the Japanese Black steers with the vitamin A restriction, and associated with the marbling phenotype[ 66 ]. However, semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction did not find any significant change of Scd mRNA in the vitamin A restriction group[ 66 ]. In Angus-based steers, vitamin A restriction does not affect the marbling scores, but induces MUFA amounts and desaturase index in adipose tissues[ 67 ].…”

Tissue Engineering for Clean Meat Production

“…Microarrays quantify 10 1 -10 6 known RNA transcripts, and can be used to obtain an overview of gene expression patterns in muscle and fat (Wang et al, 2005;Tan et al, 2006). Genome-wide microarrays, which were used to profile gene expression in fat and muscle, are commercially available from Affymetrix and Agilent for bovine (Lee et al, 2010;Cassar-Malek et al, 2017;Hayashi et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2018), ovine (Liu et al, 2015;González-Calvo et al, 2017), porcine (Fontanesi et al, 2011;González-Prendes et al, 2017a,b) and chicken (Du et al, 2017;Zahoor et al, 2017;Chang et al, 2018) samples, however may be too expensive and provide an overwhelming volume of data for routine sample assessment. Additional commercial products for porcine samples were summarized by Pena et al (2014), including microarrays specific for muscle.…”

Genome-wide association study and predictive ability for growth traits in Nellore cattle

“…The LPL gene may be related with muscle growth and development, this gene hydrolyzes triglycerides, allowing the metabolism absorption of free fatty acids available to the muscle tissues development (LEVAK-FRANK et al, 1995). The LPL gene was also identified by Hayashi, Kido and Hodate (2018) associated with muscle lipid deposition in Japanese Black cattle.…”