A review of the resistome within the digestive tract of livestockOA

Antimicrobials have been widely used to prevent and treat infectious diseases and promote growth in food-production animals. However, the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance poses a huge threat to public and animal health, especial y in less developed countries where food-producing animals often intermingle with humans. To limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance from food-production animals to humans and the environment, it is essential to have a comprehensive knowledge of the role of th...     

Insights into the architecture of human-induced polygenic selection in Duroc pigsOA

Background: As one of the most utilized commercial composite boar lines, Duroc pigs have been introduced to China and undergone strongly human-induced selection over the past decades. However, the efficiencies and limitations of previous breeding of Chinese Duroc pigs are largely understudied. The objective of this study was to uncover directional polygenic selection in the Duroc pig genome, and investigate points overlooked in the past breeding process.Results: Here, we utilized the Generation ...     

Unveiling how vitrification affects the porcine blastocyst: clues from a transcriptomic studyOA

Background: Currently, there is a high demand for efficient pig embryo cryopreservation procedures in the porcine industry as well as for genetic diversity preservation and research purposes. To date, vitrification(VIT) is the most efficient method for pig embryo cryopreservation. Despite a high number of embryos survives in vitro after vitrification/warming procedures, the in vivo embryo survival rates after embryo transfer are variable among laboratories. So far, most studies have focused on c...     

Dietary calcium supplementation promotes the accumulation of intramuscular fatOA

Background: In the livestock industry, intramuscular fat content is a key factor affecting meat quality. Many studies have shown that dietary calcium supplementation is closely related to lipid metabolism. However, few studies have examined the relationship between dietary calcium supplementation and intramuscular fat accumulation.Methods: Here, we used C2C12 cells, C57BL/6 mice(n = 8) and three-way cross-breeding pigs(Duroc×Landrace×Large white)(n = 10) to study the effect of calcium addition o...     

Single-cell transcriptomic atlas of goat ovarian agingOA

Background The ovaries are one of the first organs that undergo degenerative changes earlier in the aging process, and ovarian aging is shown by a decrease in the number and quality of oocytes. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of female age-related fertility decline in different types of ovarian cells during aging, especially in goats. Therefore, the aim of this study was to reveal the mechanisms driving ovarian aging in goats at single-cell resolution.Results For the firs...     

The significan e of N-carbamoylglutamate in ruminant productionOA

Improving the efficiency and production of grazing ruminants to support food and fiber production, while reducing the environmental footprint and meeting the welfare needs of the animals, is important for sustainable livestock production systems. Development of new technologies that can improve the efficiency of nitrogen(N) utilization in ruminants, and that are effective and safe, has important implications for ruminant livestock production. N-carbomoylglutamate(NCG) is a functional micronutrie...     

Invited review: Remediation strategies for mycotoxin control in feedOA

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of different species of fungi. Aflatoxin B1(AFB1), deoxynivalenol(DON),zearalenone(ZEN) and fumonisin B1(FB1) are the main mycotoxins contaminating animal feedstuffs. These mycotoxins can primarily induce hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, consequently cause adverse effects on the health and performance of animals. Therefore, physical, chemical, biological and nutritional regulation approaches have been developed as primary stra...     

Perturbations of the ileal mycobiota by necrotic enteritis in broiler chickensOA

Background: Intestinal microbiota is critical for maintaining animal health and homeostasis. However, involvement of the fungal community, also known as the mycobiota, in animal health and disease is poorly understood. This study was aimed to examine the association between the intestinal mycobiota and the severity of necrotic enteritis(NE), an economically significant poultry disease.Methods: A total of 90 day-of-hatch Cobb broilers were infected with Eimeria maxima on d 10, followed by an oral...     

Dynamic changes of genomic methylation profiles at different growth stages in Chinese Tan sheepOA

Background: Tan sheep, an important local sheep breed in China, is famous for their fur quality. One-month-old Tan sheep have white, curly hair with beautiful flower spikes, commonly known as "nine bends", which has high economic value. However, the "nine bends" characteristic gradually disappears with age; consequently, the economic value of the Tan sheep decreases. Age-related changes in DNA methylation have been reported and may be responsible for age-induced changes in gene expression. Until...     

Harnessing male germline epigenomics for the genetic improvement in cattleOA

Sperm is essential for successful artificial insemination in dairy cattle, and its quality can be influenced by both epigenetic modification and epigenetic inheritance. The bovine germline differentiation is characterized by epigenetic reprogramming, while intergenerational and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance can influence the offspring’s development through the transmission of epigenetic features to the offspring via the germline. Therefore, the selection of bulls with superior sperm q...     

Genomic patterns of homozygosity and inbreeding depression in MurcianoGranadina goatsOA

Background: Inbreeding depression can adversely affect traits related to fitness, reproduction and productive performance. Although current research suggests that inbreeding levels are generally low in most goat breeds, the impact of inbreeding depression on phenotypes of economic interest has only been investigated in a few studies based on genealogical data.Results: We genotyped 1040 goats with the Goat SNP50 BeadChip. This information was used to estimate different molecular inbreeding coeffi...     

Estimates of genomic inbreeding and identification of candidate regions that differ between Chinese indigenous sheep breedsOA

Background: A run of homozygosity(ROH) is a consecutive tract of homozygous genotypes in an individual that indicates it has inherited the same ancestral haplotype from both parents. Genomic inbreeding can be quantified based on ROH. Genomic regions enriched with ROH may be indicative of selection sweeps and are known as ROH islands. We carried out ROH analyses in five Chinese indigenous sheep breeds; Altay sheep(n = 50 individuals),Large-tailed Han sheep(n = 50), Hulun Buir sheep(n = 150), Shor...     

Improving the accuracy of genomic prediction for meat quality traits using whole genome sequence data in pigsOA

Background Pork quality can directly affect customer purchase tendency and meat quality traits have become valuable in modern pork production. However, genetic improvement has been slow due to high phenotyping costs. In this study, whole genome sequence(WGS) data was used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of genomic best linear unbiased prediction(GBLUP) for meat quality in large-scale crossbred commercial pigs.Results We produced WGS data(18,695,907 SNPs and 2,106,902 INDELs exceed quality co...     

The circular RNA circCPE regulates myoblast development by sponging miR-138OA

Background: Skeletal muscle development, a long-term and complex process, is controlled by a set of the myogenic genes. Circular RNAs(circRNAs), a class of noncoding RNA, have been shown to regulate various biological processes. Recent studies indicate circRNAs may be involved in myogenesis, but the role and regulatory mechanism of circRNAs in myogenesis is largely unknown. In the present study, circCPE was firstly found to promote the bovine myoblast proliferation and inhibit cell apoptosis and...     

Gut health benefit and application of postbiotics in animal productionOA

Gut homeostasis is of importance to host health and imbalance of the gut usually leads to disorders or diseases for both human and animal. Postbiotics have been applied in manipulating of gut health, and utilization of postbiotics threads new lights into the host health. Compared with the application of probiotics, the characteristics such as stability and safety of postbiotics make it a potential alternative to probiotics. Studies have reported the beneficial effects of components derived from ...     

Dietary supplementation of laminarin improves the reproductive performance of sows and the growth of suckling pigletsOA

Background Maternal nutrition is essential in keeping a highly efficient production system in the pig industry. Laminarin has been shown to improve antioxidant capacity, reduce the inflammatory response, and favor the homeostasis of intestinal microbiota. However, the effect of dietary supplementation of laminarin on the reproductive performance of sows and the growth of suckling offspring remains unknown.Methods A total of 40 Landrace × Yorkshire multiparous sows on d 85 of gestation, similar i...     

MicroRNA regulates the toxicological mechanism of four mycotoxins in vivo and in vitroOA

Mycotoxins can cause body poisoning and induce carcinogenesis, often with a high mortality rate. Therefore,it is of great significance to seek new targets that indicate mycotoxin activity and to diagnose and intervene in mycotoxin-induced diseases in their early stages. MicroRNAs(miRNAs) are physiological regulators whose dysregulation is closely related to the development of diseases. They are thus important markers for the occurrence and development of diseases. In this review, consideration i...     

Role of functional fatty acids in modulation of reproductive potential in livestockOA

Fatty acids are not only widely known as energy sources,but also play important roles in many metabolic pathways.The significance of fatty acids in modulating the reproductive potential of livestock has received greater recognition in recent years.Functional fatty acids and their metabolites improve follicular development,oocyte maturation and embryo development,as well as endometrial receptivity and placental vascular development,through enhancing energy supply and precursors for the synthesis ...     

A novel candidate gene CLN8 regulates fat deposition in avianOA

Background The fat deposition has a crucial role in animal meat flavor, and fat deposition-related traits are vital for breeding in the commercial duck industry. Avian fat-related traits are typical complex phenotypes, which need a large amount of data to analyze the genetic loci.Results In this study, we performed a new phenotypic analysis of fat traits and genotyped whole-genome variations for 1,246 ducks, and combed with previous GWAS data to reach 1,880 ducks for following analysis. The carc...