Plane of nutrition prepartum alters hepatic gene expression and function in dairy cows as assessed by longitudinal transcript and metabolic profiling

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that understanding nutrient partitioning is central to a much broader range of issues than just being able to predict productive outputs. The extent to which nutrients are partitioned to other functions such as health and reproduction is clearly important, as are the efficiency consequences of nutrient partitioning. Further, with increasing environmental variability, there is a greater need to be able to predict the ability of an animal to respond to the nutritional limitations that arise from the environment in which it is placed. How the animal partitions its nutrients when resources are limited, or imbalanced, is a major component of its ability to cope, that is, its robustness. There is mounting evidence that reliance on body reserves is increased and that robustness of dairy cows is reduced by selection for increased milk production. A key element for predicting the partition of nutrients in this wider context is to incorporate the priorities of the animal, that is, an explicit recognition of the role of both the cow's genotype (genetic make-up), and the expression of this genotype through time on nutrient partitioning. Accordingly, there has been a growing recognition of the need to incorporate in nutritional models these innate driving forces that alter nutrient partitioning according to physiological state, the genetically driven trajectories. This paper summarizes some of the work carried out to extend nutritional models to incorporate these trajectories, the genetic effects on them, as well as how these factors affect the homeostatic capacity of the animal. At present, there are models capable of predicting the partition of nutrients throughout lactation for cows of differing milk production potentials. Information concerning genotype and stage of lactation effects on homeostatic capacity has not yet been explicitly included in metabolic models that predict nutrient partition, although recent results suggest that this is achievable. These developments have greatly extended the generality of nutrient partitioning models with respect to the type of animal and its physiological state. However, these models remain very largely focussed on predicting partition between productive outputs and body reserves and, for the most part, remain research models, although substantial progress has been made towards developing models that can be applied in the field. The challenge of linking prediction of nutrient partitioning to its consequences on health, reproduction and longevity, although widely recognized, is only now beginning to be addressed. This is an important perspective for future work on nutrient partitioning.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in predicting nutrient partitioning in the dairy cow: recognizing the central role of genotype and its expression through time

Friggens

Brun-Lafleur

Faverdin

et al. 2013

“…The functional analysis of the clusters in the data set of Loor et al (2005) and Loor et al (2006) identified several overrepresented functions (Loor et al, 2011). Among the responses observed it was evident that clusters characterized by a strong downregulation in both overfed and restricted-fed v. control cows were overrepresented with terms related to induction of inflammation, suggesting that both management approaches led to downregulation of genes involved in the inflammatory response and in particular the complement pathway (Loor et al, 2011).…”

Section: Linking Cattle Genome To Ruminant Metabolismmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, because restricted-energy fed cows did not experience fatty liver relative to energy-overfed cows (Loor et al, 2006) it is apparent that different signals are capable of triggering the same metabolic adaptations in liver, for example, cows with severe nutrition-induced ketosis early postpartum also upregulate fatty acid catabolism pathways in liver (Loor et al, 2007). A novel observation in cows fed restrictedenergy prepartum was the enrichment of antigen processing and presentation pathways enriched in a cluster of clearly upregulated genes.…”

Section: Linking Cattle Genome To Ruminant Metabolismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cattle genomics and its implications for future nutritional strategies for dairy cattle

Seo

Larkin

Loor

2013

The recently sequenced cattle (Bos taurus) genome unraveled the unique genomic features of the species and provided the molecular basis for applying a systemic approach to systematically link genomic information to metabolic traits. Comparative analysis has identified a variety of evolutionary adaptive features in the cattle genome, such as an expansion of the gene families related to the rumen function, large number of chromosomal rearrangements affecting regulation of genes for lactation, and chromosomal rearrangements that are associated with segmental duplications and copy number variations. Metabolic reconstruction of the cattle genome has revealed that core metabolic pathways are highly conserved among mammals although five metabolic genes are deleted or highly diverged and seven metabolic genes are present in duplicate in the cattle genome compared to their human counter parts. The evolutionary loss and gain of metabolic genes in the cattle genome may reflect metabolic adaptations of cattle. Metabolic reconstruction also provides a platform for better understanding of metabolic regulation in cattle and ruminants. A substantial body of transcriptomics data from dairy and beef cattle under different nutritional management and across different stages of growth and lactation are already available and will aid in linking the genome with metabolism and nutritional physiology of cattle. Application of cattle genomics has great potential for future development of nutritional strategies to improve efficiency and sustainability of beef and milk production. One of the biggest challenges is to integrate genomic and phenotypic data and interpret them in a biological and practical platform. Systems biology, a holistic and systemic approach, will be very useful in overcoming this challenge.

“…Then, the use of cannulation techniques was used to measure nutrient flow from the digestive tract. The apparent absorption of nutrients into the portal vein and the use of nutrients by the major organs and tissues were then quantified with the help of multicatheterisation techniques on live animals, with the combination of the blood flow measurement with venous-arterial differences and nutrient labelling techniques providing a better understanding of nutrient fate within the body and within tissues (Drackley et al, 2006). In parallel, the development of in vitro (tissue or cell culture) and ex vivo (enzyme activities, gene expression) approaches has provided knowledge about control mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, overfeeding might render the cow liver more susceptible to oxidative stress and DNA damage through changes in gene expression. In other words, overfeeding predisposes cows to fat accumulation in the liver and to health problems, thereby demonstrating the importance of nutrition planning for dairy cows (Loor et al, 2006). Although these conclusions were, at least in part, previously known through physiological approaches, the global transcriptomic approach has the merit of assessing these biological adaptations by studying genes on a large scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses to nutrients in farm animals: implications for production and quality

Hocquette

Tesseraud

Cassar-Malek

et al. 2007

It is well known that any quantitative (energy and protein levels) and qualitative (nature of the diet, nutrient dynamic) changes in the feeding of animals affect metabolism. Energy expenditure and feed efficiency at the whole-body level, nutrient partitioning between and within tissues and organs and, ultimately, tissue and organ characteristics are the major regulated traits with consequences on the quality of the meat and milk produced. Recent progress in biology has brought to light important biological mechanisms which explain these observations: for instance, regulation by the nutrients of gene expression or of key metabolic enzyme activity, interaction and sometimes cross-regulation or competition between nutrients to provide free energy (ATP) to living cells, indirect action of nutrients through a complex hormonal action, and, particularly in herbivores, interactions between trans-fatty acids produced in the rumen and tissue metabolism. One of the main targets of this nutritional regulation is a modification of tissue insulin sensitivity and hence of insulin action. In addition, the nutritional control of mitochondrial activity (and hence of nutrient catabolism) is another major mechanism by which nutrients may affect body composition and tissue characteristics. These regulations are of great importance in the most metabolically active tissues (the digestive tract and the liver) and may have undesirable (i.e. diabetes and obesity in humans) or desirable consequences (such as the production of fatty liver by ducks and geese, and the production of fatty and hence tasty meat or milk with an adapted fatty acid profile).