Dynamic gene expression profiles during postnatal development of porcine subcutaneous adipose

PeerJ. 2016 Mar 10:4:e1768. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1768. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

A better understanding of the control of lipogenesis is of critical importance for both human and animal physiology. This requires a better knowledge of the changes of gene expression during the process of adipose tissue development. Thus, the objective of the current study was to determine the effects of development on subcutaneous adipose tissue gene expression in growing and adult pigs. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of mRNA transcriptomes in porcine subcutaneous adipose tissue across four developmental stages using digital gene expression profiling. We identified 3,274 differential expressed genes associated with oxidative stress, immune processes, apoptosis, energy metabolism, insulin stimulus, cell cycle, angiogenesis and translation. A set of universally abundant genes (ATP8, COX2, COX3, ND1, ND2, SCD and TUBA1B) was found across all four developmental stages. This set of genes may play important roles in lipogenesis and development. We also identified development-related gene expression patterns that are linked to the different adipose phenotypes. We showed that genes enriched in significantly up-regulated profiles were associated with phosphorylation and angiogenesis. In contrast, genes enriched in significantly down-regulated profiles were related to cell cycle and cytoskeleton organization, suggesting an important role for these biological processes in adipose growth and development. These results provide a resource for studying adipose development and promote the pig as a model organism for researching the development of human obesity, as well as being used in the pig industry.

Keywords: Development; Gene expression; Pig; Subcutaneous adipose.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Special Foundation for Transgenic Species of China (2014ZX0800950B and 2011ZX08006-003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31472081 and 31402046), the Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists of Sichuan Province (2013JQ0013), the Program for Innovative Research Team of Sichuan Province (15CXTD0048), the Chongqing Agriculture Development Grant (13410), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13083), and the National Biological Breeding Capacity Building and Industrialization Projects Sponsored by National Development and Reform Commission [(2014)2573]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.