Histological Feature of Ovarian Structures Throughout the Reproductive Cycle in Alpine Goats (Capra Hircus)

AbstractThe knowledge about ovarian physiology in small ruminants is still limited, especially when compared to other domestic species. Ovarian function in goats is mainly assessed by ultrasonographic techniques, whereas a quali-quantitative feature of the follicular and luteal structures throughout the reproductive cycle in naturally cycling goats is scarce. This study provides a detailed description of the functional morphology and size of 742 ovarian structures (follicles, corpora hemorrhagica and corpora lutea) in relation to the oestrus phase, the body weight and the age of 25 Alpine goats (Capra hircus). The current study demonstrated that, the number and size of the follicles were related to the stage of the reproductive cycle (P 4 mm) (P < 0.001), and small follicles (< 2 mm; P < 0.05) varied throughout the reproductive cycle, while medium follicles (2-3 mm) were invariably observed. Large and very large follicles were predominant during the diestrus phase and small follicles in the prepubertal anestrus. It is evident from the current study that the number of follicles (P < 0.05) was significantly affected with both body weight and age. On the other hand, the size of follicles was significantly affected with body weight only (P < 0.0001). These results could contribute to a deeper understanding of ovarian transformations with important implications in assisted reproductive technologies, thereby concurring in advancing the efficiency of ultrasound in breeding programs for this species

The hairless (hr) gene is involved in the congenital hypotrichosis of Valle del Belice sheep

Congenital hypotrichosis in mammalian species consists of partial or complete absence of hair at birth. The hairless gene is often responsible for this disorder in men, mice and rats. Recent experimental data on Valle del Belice sheep reared in Sicily for milk production, support the genetic control of the ovine hypotrichosis as a Mendelian recessive trait. The ovine hairless gene was chosen as the candidate gene involved in this disorder. Blood samples were collected from Valle del Belice sheep with the normal and hypotrichotic phenotypes. Almost the entire hairless gene was successfully amplified using the long PCR technique. Unrelated sheep with differing phenotypes were randomly chosen for sequencing the amplified products. Different mutations related to the hypotrichotic phenotype were found in exon 3. In fact, sequencing revealed an A/T transversion at position 739, a G/A transition at position 823, and a C/T transition at position 1312. From these nucleotide exchanges, three substitutions of the processed mature protein were deduced at the amino acid positions 247 (Thr/Ser), 275 (Ala/Thr), and 438 (Gln/Stop). A PCR-SSCP based test was developed in order to detect the last mutation, which is responsible for the hypotrichotic phenotype

Genetic and environmental effects on a meat spotting defect in seasoned dry-cured ham

Purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of a visible spotting defect on the slice of dry-cured ham and assess environmental and genetic causes of this frequent problem. A group of 233 pigs from commercial cross-breeding lines, progeny of ten boars and forty seven sows, was raised in a single herd to obtain the “Italian Heavy Pig”, typically slaughtered at 160 ± 10 kg live weight and older than 9 months of age. A quality evaluation of their right dry-cured hams, seasoned according to the Parma P.D.O. protocol, was undertaken. Each ham was cross-sectioned to obtain a slice of Semimembranosus, Semitendinosus and Biceps Femoris muscles. The focused phenotype was the presence/absence of brownish spots in these muscles, which represent a remarkable meat defect with strong impact on the final sale price. Environmental and management factors were considered in order to evaluate variability related to the phenotype. Animals were raised on two different flooring types (concrete and slatted floor) and a Vitamin C diet was also supplemented in the last 45 days before slaughtering to half of the animals. While the pre-planned environmental effects did not show any significant contribution to the total variability of the phenotype, the genetic analysis showed a near to zero value for heritability with a consistent 0.32 repeatability. The proportion of the total phenotypic variance was explained by an important dominance genetic component (0.26) indicating that the technological seasoning process may play a secondary role on the expression of this phenotype

Genomic analysis suggests KITLG is responsible for a roan pattern in two Pakistani goat breeds

The roan coat color pattern is described as the presence of white hairs intermixed with pigmented hairs. This kind of pigmentation pattern has been observed in many domestic species, including the goat. The molecular mechanisms and inheritance that underlie this pattern are known for some species and the KITLG gene has been shown associated with this phenotype. To date, no research effort has been done to find the gene(s) that controls roan coat color pattern in goats. In the present study, after genotyping with the GoatSNP50 BeadChip, 35 goats that showed a roan pattern and that belonged to two Pakistan breeds (Group A) were analyzed and then compared to 740 goats of 39 Italian and Pakistan goats breeds that did not have the same coat color pattern (Group B). Run of homozygosity-based and XP-EHH analyses were used to identify unique genomic regions potentially associated with the roan pattern. A total of 3 regions on chromosomes 5, 6 and 12 were considered unique among the group A versus B group comparisons. The A region > 1.7 Mb on chromosome 5 was the most divergent between the two groups. This region contains six genes, including the KITLG gene. Our findings support the hypothesis that the KITLG gene may be associated with the roan phenotype in goats

Gas structure inside dust cavities of transition disks: Ophiuchus IRS 48 observed by ALMA

List of DEGs between hypothalamus and ovary. Positive value in the LogFC column refers to genes over-expressed in the vary; negative values indicates genes over-expressed in hypothalamus. (XLSX 1257 kb

Genetic diversity of Italian goat breeds assessed with a medium-density SNP chip

Background: Among the European countries, Italy counts the largest number of local goat breeds. Thanks to the recent availability of a medium-density SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) chip for goat, the genetic diversity of Italian goat populations was characterized by genotyping samples from 14 Italian goat breeds that originate from different geographical areas with more than 50 000 SNPs evenly distributed on the genome. Results: Analysis of the genotyping data revealed high levels of genetic polymorphism and an underlying North-south geographic pattern of genetic diversity that was highlighted by both the first dimension of the multi-dimensional scaling plot and the Neighbour network reconstruction. We observed a moderate and weak population structure in Northern and Central-Southern breeds, respectively, with pairwise FST values between breeds ranging from 0.013 to 0.164 and 7.49 % of the total variance assigned to the between-breed level. Only 2.11 % of the variance explained the clustering of breeds into geographical groups (Northern, Central and Southern Italy and Islands). Conclusions: Our results indicate that the present-day genetic diversity of Italian goat populations was shaped by the combined effects of drift, presence or lack of gene flow and, to some extent, by the consequences of traditional management systems and recent demographic history. Our findings may constitute the starting point for the development of marker-assisted approaches, to better address future breeding and management policies in a species that is particularly relevant for the medium-and long-term sustainability of marginal regions

The DNA Methylation Pattern of Prepubertal and Pubertal Alpine Goats

Puberty timing is controlled by many genes and the elements coordinating this process have not completely been identified. Hypothalamus is a pivotal organ in the control of sexual maturation. There is evidence that epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, play a key role in the process. The methylome of the hypothalamus of 10 Alpine goats, 5 at a prepubertal stage (93\ub18 days old) and 5 at their pubertal stage (230\ub117 days old) was analysed to investigate the differences at the DNA methylation level behind these physiological changes. In order to evaluate differentially methylated regions, Methylated DNA Binding Domain sequencing (MBD-seq) with enrichment of methylated DNA fragments and next generation sequencing (Hiseq2000 Illumina) were performed. An average of 24,13 million of reads (range 18.00 and 30.11 million of reads) were produced per sample and peaks corresponding to hyper-methylated regions were estimated using the software ChIPseeqer. The analysis showed that there was an increase in methylation before puberty.The extent of methylation had a median value (\ub1IQR) of 12.32\ub110.21 Mbp of the genome for prepubertal goats, compared with 8.18\ub19.71 Mbp for pubertal goats. Significantly increased methylation was seen on 11 chromosomes in prepubertal goats. Among these, chromosomes 4 and 7 were the most highly significant differentially methylated. In showing that female puberty in goats is associated with amodification of the DNA methylation pattern in the hypothalamus, these results add information on the complex mechanisms that control puberty in mammals

Conservation status and historical relatedness of Italian cattle breeds

Abstract Background: In the last 50 years, the diversity of cattle breeds has experienced a severe contraction. However, in spite of the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several local cattle breeds are still farmed in Italy. Genetic characterization of breeds represents an essential step to guide decisions in the management of farm animal genetic resources. The aim of this work was to provide a high-resolution representation of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using a medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Results: After quality control filtering, the dataset included 31,013 SNPs for 800 samples from 32 breeds. Our results on the genetic diversity of these breeds agree largely with their recorded history. We observed a low level of genetic diversity, which together with the small size of the effective populations, confirmed that several breeds are threatened with extinction. According to the analysis of runs of homozygosity, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong in some local breeds, such as Garfagnina, Mucca Pisana and Pontremolese. Patterns of genetic differentiation, shared ancestry, admixture events, and the phylogenetic tree, all suggest the presence of gene flow, in particular among breeds that originate from the same geographical area, such as the Sicilian breeds. In spite of the complex admixture events that most Italian cattle breeds have experienced, they have preserved distinctive characteristics and can be clearly discriminated, which is probably due to differences in genetic origin, environment, genetic isolation and inbreeding. Conclusions: This study is the first exhaustive genome-wide analysis of the diversity of Italian cattle breeds. The results are of significant importance because they will help design and implement conservation strategies. Indeed, efforts to maintain genetic diversity in these breeds are needed. Improvement of systems to record and monitor inbreeding in these breeds may contribute to their in situ conservation and, in view of this, the availability of genomic data is a fundamental resource