Transcriptomic Profiling of Subcutaneous Backfat in Castrated and Intact Alentejano Pigs Finished Outdoors with Commercial and Fiber-Rich Diets

Nicolás Garrido; André Albuquerque; Rui Charneca; Filipa Costa; Carla Marmelo; Amélia Ramos; Luísa Martin; José Manuel Martins

doi:10.3390/genes14091722

Transcriptomic Profiling of Subcutaneous Backfat in Castrated and Intact Alentejano Pigs Finished Outdoors with Commercial and Fiber-Rich Diets

Genes (Basel). 2023 Aug 29;14(9):1722. doi: 10.3390/genes14091722.

Authors

Nicolás Garrido^{1

2}, André Albuquerque^{1

2}, Rui Charneca^{1

3}, Filipa Costa¹, Carla Marmelo^{1

2}, Amélia Ramos^{1

4}, Luísa Martin^{1

4}, José Manuel Martins^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ ECO-PIG Consortium, Z.I. Catraia, Ap. 50, 3441-131 Santa Comba Dão, Portugal.
² MED-Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development & CHANGE-Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal.
³ MED & CHANGE, Departamento de Zootecnia, ECT, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal.
⁴ Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnologias, Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra, Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal.

Abstract

In this work, we studied the backfat transcriptome of surgically castrated (C), intact (I) and intact fed an experimental diet (IE) outdoor-reared male Alentejano (AL) pigs. The experimental diet was a high-fiber diet with locally produced legumes and by-products associated with a boar taint reduction effect. At slaughter (~160 kg), backfat samples were collected for total RNA sequencing. Intact pigs presented leaner carcasses, more total collagen, and more unsaturated intramuscular fat content than C animals. A total of 2726 differentially expressed genes (DEGs, |log₂ FC|> 0.58, q < 0.05) were identified between C and I with overexpressed genes related to muscular activity (MYH1, ACTA1) or collagen metabolism (COL1A1, COL1A2) in I pigs. Between C and IE, 1639 DEGs of genes involved in lipidic metabolism (LEP, ME1, FABP4, ELOVL6) were overexpressed in C. Finally, only 28 DEGs were determined between I and IE. Clustering results indicated a drastic influence of the testis in the transcriptome of subcutaneous fat of AL pigs, while the diet had a marginal effect. Diet can reduce stress by increasing satiety in animals, and could have induced an increase of skatole degradation due to the higher expression of the CYP2A19 gene in the IE group.

Keywords: boar taint; castration; fat transcriptome; fiber diet; heavy pigs.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the FEDER/COMPETE2020 program of the European Union under the Project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-072226, and by National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the Project UIDB/05183/2020.