The Effects Of Dietary Gelsemium Elegans Benth On Liver Transcriptome Of Piglets

The Gelsemium elegans Benth(GEB)is the whole grass of the genus Mackerel,also known as the broken grass,wild georgum,poisonous root and large tea.The whole plant of GEB is highly toxic.As a kind of traditional herb,it is mainly distributed in Zhejiang,Fujian,Guangdong,Guangxi,Hunan,Guizhou,Yunnan and other regions of China.Previous investigations of our group showed that GEB extraction has considerable growth promoting effects in livestock and poultry breeding.However,the underlying molecular mechanisms are still unclear.To address this issue,we investigated the influence of GEB powder on liver transcriptome of piglets by high-throughput sequencing technology.After the end of the test period,the livers of piglets were taken for subsequent analyses including total RNA extraction,library construction,Illumina platform sequencing,q PCR validation and bioinformatics analysis.The results show that:1.By comparing the liver transcriptomes between the two groups,241 differentially expressed genes were detected,of which 127 were up-regulated and 114 were downregulated.GO functional enrichment analysis showed that the significantly enriched molecular processes involving differentially expressed genes mainly include: regulation of appetite,positive regulation of glycogen biosynthetic process,positive regulation of cerebellar granule cell precursor proliferation,and cholesterol biosynthetic process.Moreover,KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that significantly enriched KEGG pathways of differentially expressed genes mainly include: Vitamin digestion and absorption,selenocompound metabolism,insulin signaling pathway,glycosphingolipid biosynthesislacto and neolacto series,glycerolipid metabolism,cysteine and methionine metabolism,carbon metabolism,bile secretion,and circadian rhythm.2.Furthermore,by analyzing the genes associated with the main traits,it was found that there are 8 differentially expressed genes related to meat and ketones(Meat and Carcass Traits)(respectively,PPARD,SYBU,DKK1,AASS,SLC13A5,FASN,SCD and BHMT).And three differentially expressed genes are related to External Traits(NOCT,WARS and PPARD).Two differentially expressed genes are associated to Production Traits(SCD and PPARD,respectively).There is one differentially expressed gene associated with Reproduction Traits(for: RASSF6).This indicates that the differentially expressed genes associated with meat and ketone characteristics(Meat and Carcass Traits)are dominant,suggesting that the GEB powder may mainly affect the pig’s Meat and Carcass Traits.3.Through analyzing the expression of transcription factors and transcriptional cofactors,the results revealed that there are 12 differentially expressed transcription factors:DBP,CUX1,COL1A1,RORC,ZNF7,MLXIPL,ZBTB21,ASCL2,PPARD,ARNTL,NR0B1 and ATF3;there are 6 differentially expressed transcriptional cofactors: SRRM1,ARL2 BP,CTH,TAF4 B,SGK1 and HDAC5.4.Finally,by constructing a PPI network,important hub genes are obtained: CFTR,PRKACG,HDAC4,SGK1,DLG2,GRB7,SLC7A9,PPARD,NR0B2,CYP1A1,and FASN.It is worth noting that PPARD and FASN are not only hub genes,but also related to multiple traits,suggesting that these two genes may play an important role in the process of improving the performance of pigs.Pathways affected by these genes mainly include: PPAR signaling pathway,Wnt signaling pathway,Circadian rhythm,Fatty acid metabolism,AMPK signaling pathway,Cysteine and methionine metabolism,Glycine,serine and threonine metabolism,Herpes simplex infection,Acute myeloid leukemia and Pathways in Cancer.It is indicated that GEB may regulate phenotypic changes in animals through these signaling pathways.In summary,we found that the GEB has an important regulatory effect on appetite,insulin,bile acid secretion,fatty acid metabolism,and biological clock rhythm.At the transcriptome level,this results systematically revealed the effect of GEB on the transcriptome profile in the liver of piglets.It provides important hints and useful data for further exploration of molecular mechanisms on growth promoting effects of GEB.