• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.1350-1356
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate polymorphisms of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) and insulin like growth factor 2 (IGF2) genes and to evaluate the growth traits affected by such polymorphisms in Thai native (Kradon) pigs. Methods: Blood samples and productive data from 91 Kradon pigs were collected. DNA was extracted and quantified, the IGF2 and MC4R genes were amplified, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) produces were digested using the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Genotyping was performed, and the association between genotypes and growth traits on the birth and weaning weights were evaluated. Results: The IGF2 intron7 g.162G>C variations in Kradon pigs were found in three genotypes: i) GG, ii) GC, and iii) CC. The GG genotype frequency was the highest followed by the GC and CC genotypes. The frequencies of the G and C alleles were 0.703 and 0.297, respectively. The MC4R genotype was found in only one genotype (GG). The IGF2 gene pattern was not associated with birth weight traits, whereas the IGF2 gene pattern was related to the weaning weight trait in Kradon pigs. Pigs with the CC and GC genotypes had higher weaning weights than ones with the GG genotype (p<0.001). Conclusion: Thai native Kradon pigs with the CC and GC genotypes of the IGF2 gene have higher weaning weights than pigs with the GG genotype.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.129-134
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• 2013

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is defined by a 20-mm Hg difference of systolic blood pressure (dtSBP) and/or a 10-mm Hg difference of diastolic blood pressure (dtDBP) between supine and standing, and OH is associated with a failure of the cardiovascular reflex to maintain blood pressure on standing from a supine position. To understand the underlying genetic factors for OH traits (OH, dtSBP, and dtDBP), genome-wide association studies (GWASs) using 333,651 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were conducted separately for two population-based cohorts, Ansung (n = 3,173) and Ansan (n = 3,255). We identified 8 SNPs (5 SNPs for dtSBP and 3 SNPs for dtDBP) that were repeatedly associated in both the Ansung and Ansan cohorts and had p-values of < $1{\times}10^{-5}$ in the meta-analysis. Unfortunately, the SNPs of the OH case control GWAS did not pass our p-value criteria. Four of 8 SNPs were located in the intergenic region of chromosome 2, and the nearest gene (CTNNA2) was located at 1 Mb of distance. CTNNA2 is a linker between cadherin adhesion receptors and the actin cytoskeleton and is essential for stabilizing dendritic spines in rodent hippocampal neurons. Although there is no report about the function in blood pressure regulation, hippocampal neurons interact primarily with the autonomic nervous system and might be related to OH. The remaining SNPs, rs7098785 of dtSBP trait and rs6892553, rs16887217, and rs4959677 of dtDBP trait were located in the PIK3AP1 intron, ACTBL2-3' flanking, STAR intron, and intergenic region, respectively, but there was no clear functional link to blood pressure regulation.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.879-890
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the use of Megasphaera elsdenii (M. elsdenii) as a probiotic on rumen fermentation, production performance, carcass traits and health of ruminants by integrating data from various related studies using meta-analysis. Methods: A total of 32 studies (consisted of 136 data points) were obtained and integrated into a database. The parameters integrated were fermentation products, rumen microbes, production performance, carcass quality, animal health, blood and urine metabolites. Statistical analysis of the compiled database used a mixed model methodology. Different studies were considered random effects, while M. elsdenii supplementation doses were considered fixed effects. p-values and the Akaike information criterion were employed as model statistics. The model was deemed significant at p<0.05 or had a tendency to be significant when p-value between 0.05<p<0.10. Results: Supplementation with M. elsdenii increased (p<0.05) some proportion of fermented rumen products such as propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate, and valerate, and significantly reduced (p<0.05) lactic acid concentration, acetate proportion, total bacterial population and methane emission. Furthermore, the probiotic supplementation enhanced (p<0.05) livestock production performance, especially in the average daily gain and body condition score. Regarding the carcass quality, hot carcass weight and carcass gain were elevated (p< 0.05) due to the M. elsdenii supplementation. Animal health also showed improvement as indicated by the lower (p<0.05) diarrhoea and bloat incidences as well as the liver abscess. However, M. elsdenii supplementation had negligible effects on blood and urine metabolites of ruminants. Conclusion: Supplementation of M. elsdenii is capable of decreasing ruminal lactic acid concentration, enhancing rumen health, elevating some favourable rumen fermentation products, and in turn, increasing production performance of ruminants.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.101-102
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• 2010

During the last decade, large community cohorts have been established by the Korea National Institutes of Health (KNIH), and enormous epidemiological and clinical data have been accumulated. Using these information and samples in the cohorts, KNIH set out to do a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 2007, and the Korea Association REsource (KARE) consortium was launched to analyze the data to identify the underlying genetic risk factors of diseases and diverse health indexes, such as blood pressure, obesity, bone density, and blood biochemical traits. The consortium consisted of 6 research divisions, formed by 25 principal investigators in 19 organizations, including 18 universities, 2 institutes, and 1 company. Each division focused on one of the following subjects: the identification of genetic factors, the statistical analysis of gene-gene interactions, the genetic epidemiology of gene-environment interactions, copy number variation, the bioinformatics related to a GWAS, and a GWAS of nutrigenomics. In this special issue, the study results of the KARE consortium are provided as 9 articles. We hope that this special issue might encourage the genomics community to share data and scientists, including clinicians, to analyze the valuable Korean data of KARE.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1547-1554
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• 2009

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of different sources of chromium on growth performance, blood profile and carcass trait in growing-finishing pigs. A total of 200 growing pigs (Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire)${\times}$Duroc, average initial weight 8.5 kg) were allotted to 5 treatments with 4 replicates per treatment and 10 pigs per replicate. Five treatments were designated as follows according to the source of chromium. i) Control (No chromium): corn-soybean meal based basal diet, ii) $CrCl_{3}$: control diet+200 ppb Cr as $CrCl_{3}$, iii) CrPic: control diet+200 ppb Cr as Cr picolinate, iv) CrMet-1: control diet+100 ppb Cr as Cr methionine, and v) CrMet-2: control diet+200 ppb Cr as Cr methionine. After the feeding trial, three pigs per replicate (12 pigs per treatment) were slaughtered for the evaluation of carcass traits. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed: gain ratio (F/G) were not different (p>0.05) among dietary Cr sources. However, whole-period ADG of pigs fed CrPic, CrMet-1 and CrMet-2 diets was higher (p<0.05) than for the control diet. Nutrient digestibility was not different (p>0.05) among dietary Cr sources, but the nutrient digestibility of pigs fed CrPic, CrMet-1 and CrMet-2 diets was higher (p<0.05) than for the control diet. BUN level decreased with more magnitude (p<0.05) in pigs fed Cr during the 20 to 50 kg period. Although both serum cholesterol and triglyceride were different (p<0.05) among treatments, there was no consistent response that could be related to the dietary Cr sources regardless of growth phase. However, the overall data suggested that serum cholesterol level increased as BW of pigs increased. Blood total protein (TP) increased (p<0.05) in pigs fed Cr only during the 90-110 kg phase, and blood creatinine (Creat) level was higher in $CrCl_{3}$ and CrPic treatments than in the control only during the 90-110 kg phase. Backfat thickness was thinner (p<0.05) in pigs fed CrMet-2 than in the control treatment. Therefore, lean percentage was higher (p<0.05) in CrMet-2 than in control pigs. However, dressing percentage and Longissimus muscle area (LMA) were not different (p>0.05) among treatments. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 200 ppb Cr, via either CrPic or CrMet, improved pig growth performance and nutrient digestibility. Moreover, dietary CrMet supplementation for the growing-finishing pig is evidently remarkable for improving both lean percentage of the carcass and backfat thickness.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of the study was to find a possible association between the ${\beta}-$ and ${\kappa}-casein$ and ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$ genotypes and important milk physiochemical and technological characteristics such as acidity, alcohol stability, the contents of some minerals and the parameters of acid fermentation ability (FEA) in Czech Fleckvieh Cattle. Methods: Milk and blood samples were collected from 338 primiparous Czech Fleckvieh cows at the same stage of lactation. The genotypes of individual cows for ${\kappa}-casein$ (alleles A, B, and E) and ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$ (alleles A and B) were ascertained by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, while their ${\beta}-casein$ (alleles $A^1$, $A^2$, $A^3$, and B) genotype was determined using melting curve genotyping analysis. The data collected were i) milk traits including active acidity (pH), titratable acidity (TA), alcohol stability (AS); calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K) contents; and ii) yoghurt traits including active acidity (Y-pH), titratable acidity (Y-TA), and the counts of both Lactobacilli and Streptococci in 1 mL of yoghurt. A linear model was assumed with fixed effects of herd, year, and season of calving, an effect of the age of the cow at first calving and effects of the casein and lactoglobulin genotypes of ${\beta}-CN$ (${\beta}-casein$, CSN2), ${\kappa}-CN$ (${\kappa}-casein$, CSN3), and ${\beta}-LG$ (${\beta}-lactoglobulin$, LGB), or the three-way interaction between those genes. Results: The genetic polymorphisms were related to the milk TA, AS, content of P and Ca, Y-pH and Lactobacilli number in the fresh yoghurt. The CSN3 genotype was significantly associated with milk AS (p<0.05). The effect of the composite CSN2-CSN3-LGB genotype on the investigated traits mostly reflected the effects of the individual genes. It significantly influenced TA (p<0.01), Y-pH (p<0.05) and the log of the Lactobacilli count (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the yoghurt fermentation test together with milk proteins genotyping could contribute to milk quality control and highlight new perspectives in dairy cattle selection.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1556-1565
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• 2022

Objective: Tan lambs (n = 36, 3 mo old, 19.1±0.53 kg) were used to assess effects of dietary guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) and rumen-protected methionine (RPM) on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, and serum parameters. Methods: Lambs were randomly assigned to three treatment groups, with 6 pens per group and 2 lambs per pen. Dietary treatments were: basal diet alone (I); basal diet supplemented with 0.08% GAA+0.06% RPM (II); and basal diet supplemented with 0.08% GAA+0.08% RPM (III). Diets were provided three times a day for 90 d. Intake per pen was recorded daily and individual lamb body weight (BW) was measured monthly. Carcass traits were measured after slaughter and meat quality at the end of the experiment, blood samples were taken on a subgroup of lambs for analysis of indicators mostly related to protein metabolism. Results: Final BW and average daily gain for the first and second month, and for the entire experiment were greater in Treatment II compared to Treatment I (p<0.05), whereas feed to gain ratio was lower (p<0.05). Treatment II had the optimal dressing percentage and net meat weight proportion, as well as crude protein and intramuscular fat concentrations in muscles. Treatment II improved meat quality, as indicated by the greater water holding capacity, pH after 45 min and 48 h, and lower shear force and cooking loss. Dietary supplementation of GAA and RPM also increased the meat color a^* and b^* values at 24 h. Finally, Treatment II increased total protein, and serum concentrations of albumin and creatinine, but decreased serum urea nitrogen concentrations, indicating improved protein efficiency. Conclusion: In this study, 0.08% GAA+0.06% RPM supplementation improved growth performance and meat quality of Tan lambs.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.33.1-33.11
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• 2023

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a multifactorial, polygenic, and metabolically complicated disease. A large number of genes are responsible for the biogenesis of T2DM and calpain10 (CAPN10) is one of them. The association of numerous CAPN10 genetic polymorphisms in the development of T2DM has been widely studied in different populations and noticed inconclusive results. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the plausible association of CAPN10 polymorphism SNP-19 (rs3842570) with T2DM and T2DM-related anthropometric and metabolic traits in the Noakhali region of Bangladesh. This case-control study included 202 T2DM patients and 75 healthy individuals from different places in Noakhali. A significant association (p < 0.05) of SNP-19 with T2DM in co-dominant 2R/3R vs. 3R/3R (odds ratio [OR], 2.7; p=0.0014) and dominant (2R/3R) + (2R/2R) vs. 3R/3R (OR, 2.47; p=0.0011) genetic models was observed. High-risk allele 2R also showed a significant association with T2DM in the allelic model (OR, 1.67; p=0.0109). The genotypic frequency of SNP-19 variants showed consistency with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05). Additionally, SNP-19 genetic variants showed potential associations with the anthropometric and metabolic traits of T2DM patients in terms of body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. Our approach identifies the 2R/3R genotype of SNP-19 as a significant risk factor for biogenesis of T2DM in the Noakhali population. Furthermore, a large-scale study could be instrumental to correlate this finding in overall Bangladeshi population.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.1046-1062
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• 2022

This study investigated the effects of L-glutamine (Gln) supplementation on growth performance, physiological traits, heat shock proteins (HSPs), and gene expression related to muscle and adipose tissue development in Hanwoo steers under heat stress (HS) conditions. Eight Hanwoo steers (initial body weight [BW] 570.7 ± 43.6 kg, months of age 22.3 ± 0.88) were randomly separated into two groups, control and treatment, and supplied with the concentration (1.5% of BW kg/day/head) and rice straw (1.5 kg/day/head). The treatment group were fed the Gln supplementation (0.5% of concentration, as-fed basis) once a day at 08:00 h. Blood samples for the assessment of haematological and biochemical parameters and the separation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected four times, at 0, 3, 6, and 10 weeks of the experiment. Feed intake was measured daily. BW to analyze growth performance and hair follicle collection to analyze the expression of HSPs were executed four times at 0, 3, 6, and 10 weeks. To analyze gene expression, longissimus dorsi muscle samples were collected by biopsy at the end of the study. As a result, growing performance, including final BW, average daily gain, and gain-to-feed ratio, were not different between the two groups. Leukocytes including lymphocytes and granulocytes, tended to increase in the Gln supplementation group (p = 0.058). There were also no differences in biochemical parameters shown between the two groups, except total protein and albumin, both of which were lower in the Gln supplementation group (p < 0.05). Gene expressions related to muscle and adipose tissue development were not different between the two groups. As temperature-humidity index (THI) increased, HSP70 and HSP90 expression in the hair follicle showed a high correlation. HSP90 in the hair follicle was decreased in the treatment group compared with the control group at 10 weeks (p < 0.05). Collectively, dietary Gln supplementation (0.5% of concentration, as-fed basis) may not be influential enough to affect growth performance and gene expression related to muscle and adipose tissue development in steers. However, Gln supplementation increased the number of immune cells and decreased HSP90 in the hair follicle implying HS reduction in the corresponding group.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.343-351
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• 2016

Although the chemical, physical, and nutritional properties of bovine milk have been extensively studied, only a few studies have attempted to characterize milk-synthesizing genes using RNA-seq data. RNA-seq data was collected from 21 Holstein samples, along with group information about milk production ability; milk yield; and protein, fat, and solid contents. Meta-analysis was employed in order to generally characterize genes related to milk production. In addition, we attempted to investigate the relationship between milk related traits, parity, and lactation period. We observed that milk fat is highly correlated with lactation period; this result indicates that this effect should be considered in the model in order to accurately detect milk production related genes. By employing our developed model, 271 genes were significantly (false discovery rate [FDR] adjusted p-value<0.1) detected as milk production related differentially expressed genes. Of these genes, five (albumin, nitric oxide synthase 3, RNA-binding region (RNP1, RRM) containing 3, secreted and transmembrane 1, and serine palmitoyltransferase, small subunit B) were technically validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in order to check the accuracy of RNA-seq analysis. Finally, 83 gene ontology biological processes including several blood vessel and mammary gland development related terms, were significantly detected using DAVID gene-set enrichment analysis. From these results, we observed that detected milk production related genes are highly enriched in the circulation system process and mammary gland related biological functions. In addition, we observed that detected genes including caveolin 1, mammary serum amyloid A3.2, lingual antimicrobial peptide, cathelicidin 4 (CATHL4), cathelicidin 6 (CATHL6) have been reported in other species as milk production related gene. For this reason, we concluded that our detected 271 genes would be strong candidates for determining milk production.