Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fanim.2024.1476353
This article is part of the Research Topic Interventions for Improving Livestock Productivity in Developing Countries View all 10 articles

Epigenetic insights into creep-feeding: methylation profiling of Longissimus thoracis muscle at weaning in crossbred cattle

Provisionally accepted
Lucas Rodrigues Lucas Rodrigues 1German Ramírez-Zamudio German Ramírez-Zamudio 2,3Guilherme Pereira Guilherme Pereira 1Juliana Torrecilhas Juliana Torrecilhas 1Lucas Trevisan Lucas Trevisan 1Otávio Machado Neto Otávio Machado Neto 1Luis Artur Chardulo Luis Artur Chardulo 1Welder Baldassini Welder Baldassini 1Rogério Curi Rogério Curi 1*
  • 1 São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 2 University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
  • 3 University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated the impact of creep-feeding supplementation on the genome methylation of the Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle in crossbred beef cattle (Bos taurus × Bos indicus). The experiment involved 48 uncastrated F1 Angus-Nellore males (half-siblings), which were divided into two groups: NCF -no creep-feeding (n = 24) and CF -creep-feeding (n = 24). After weaning at 210 days, all animals were feedlot finished for 180 days under identical conditions. LT muscle biopsies were collected at weaning for genomic DNA methylation analysis by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). The groups differed significantly (CF > NCF: p < 0.05) to weaning weight (243.57±5.70 vs. 228.92±5.07kg), backfat thickness (12.96±0.86 vs. 10.61±0.42mm), LT muscle marbling score (366.11±12.39 vs. 321.50±13.65), and LT intramuscular fat content (5.80±0.23 vs. 4.95±0.20%). The weights at the beginning of the experiment and at slaughter (390 days) did not differ significantly. Mean methylation levels were higher in CF with 0.18% more CpG, 0.04% CHG, and 0.03% CHH. We identified 974 regions with differential methylation (DMRs: > 25% and q < 0.05), which overlapped with 241 differentially methylated genes (DMGs). Among these genes, 108 were hypermethylated and 133 were hypomethylated in CF group. Notably, 39 of these DMGs were previously identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs: log2 fold change [0.5]) in the same animal groups. Over-representation analysis highlighted epigenetic regulations related to muscle growth, PPAR signaling, adipogenesis, insulin response, and lipid metabolism. Key DMGs/DEGs

    Keywords: Bos taurus x Bos indicus, methylome, Nutrigenomics, RRBS, supplementation. 2 ACAA1, SORBS1, Smad3, trim63

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 11 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rodrigues, Ramírez-Zamudio, Pereira, Torrecilhas, Trevisan, Machado Neto, Chardulo, Baldassini and Curi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rogério Curi, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.