In search of epigenetic marks in testes and sperm cells of differentially fed boars

Bruggmann, Rémy; Jagannathan, Vidhya; Braunschweig, Martin (2013). In search of epigenetic marks in testes and sperm cells of differentially fed boars. PLoS ONE, 8(11), e78691. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0078691

[img]
Preview
Text
fetchObject.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (147kB) | Preview

In search of transmittable epigenetic marks we investigated gene expression in testes and sperm cells of differentially fed F0 boars from a three generation pig feeding experiment that showed phenotypic differences in the F2 generation. RNA samples from 8 testes of boars that received either a diet enriched in methylating micronutrients or a control diet were analyzed by microarray analysis. We found moderate differential expression between testes of differentially fed boars with a high FDR of 0.82 indicating that most of the differentially expressed genes were false positives. Nevertheless, we performed a pathway analysis and found disparate pathway maps of development_A2B receptor: action via G-protein alpha s, cell adhesion_Tight junctions and cell adhesion_Endothelial cell contacts by junctional mechanisms which show inconclusive relation to epigenetic inheritance. Four RNA samples from sperm cells of these differentially fed boars were analyzed by RNA-Seq methodology. We found no differential gene expression in sperm cells of the two groups (adjusted P-value>0.05). Nevertheless, we also explored gene expression in sperm by a pathway analysis showing that genes were enriched for the pathway maps of bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) airways, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis p.3 and cell cycle_Initiation of mitosis. Again, these pathway maps are miscellaneous without an obvious relationship to epigenetic inheritance. It is concluded that the methylating micronutrients moderately if at all affects RNA expression in testes of differentially fed boars. Furthermore, gene expression in sperm cells is not significantly affected by extensive supplementation of methylating micronutrients and thus RNA molecules could not be established as the epigenetic mark in this feeding experiment.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Institute of Genetics
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

UniBE Contributor:

Bruggmann, Rémy, Jagannathan, Vidya, Braunschweig, Martin

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Rémy Bruggmann

Date Deposited:

04 Jul 2014 15:45

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0078691

PubMed ID:

24223838

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.47847

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/47847

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback