Effect of Gender to Fat Deposition in Yaks Based on Transcriptomic and Metabolomics Analysis

Lin Xiong; Jie Pei; Xiaoyun Wu; Qudratullah Kalwar; Ping Yan; Xian Guo

doi:10.3389/fcell.2021.653188

Effect of Gender to Fat Deposition in Yaks Based on Transcriptomic and Metabolomics Analysis

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Aug 24:9:653188. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.653188. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lin Xiong^{1

2}, Jie Pei^{1

2}, Xiaoyun Wu^{1

2}, Qudratullah Kalwar³, Ping Yan^{1

2}, Xian Guo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Animal Science Department, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory for Yak Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction Engineering of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, China.
³ Department of Animal Reproduction, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Sakrand, Pakistan.

Abstract

Fat deposition in yaks plays an important part in survival, multiplication, and meat quality. In this work, the characteristic of fat deposition in male yaks (MYs) and female yaks (FYs) and the regulations of gender to yak fat deposition were explored by mRNA-Seq and non-targeted metabolomics analyses. FYs possessed a higher body fat rate (BFR) of visceral fat, fat content in longissimus dorsi (LD) and liver, and subcutaneous fat thickness (p < 0.05). The fat and cholesterol synthesis in liver and the fat transport in FY blood increased. The fat metabolism in yaks is the combined effect of carbohydrate, fatty acid, and amino acid metabolism by tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and an increase of triglyceride (TG) synthesis was accompanied by an increase of steroid synthesis. The high levels of myo-inositol and cortisol (COR) (p < 0.01) activated the calcium signaling in FY subcutaneous fat, followed by the increase of adipocyte secretion, and resulted in more leptin (LEP) secretion (p < 0.01). Then peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling was activated by the focal adhesions and ECM-receptor interaction. Finally, the TG and steroid synthesis increased by the expression regulation of ME1, SCD, ELOVL6, DGAT2, DBI, LPL, CPT1, PLIN1, LIPA, DHCR24, and SQLE gene. The above genes can be considered as the candidate genes for yak with higher fat amount in molecular breeding in the future. This study can provide a theoretical basis for improving the meat quality and breeding of yaks.

Keywords: PPAR signal; fat deposition; gender; metabolomics; transcriptome; yak.