Changes in expression of insulin signaling pathway genes by dietary fat source in growing-finishing pigs.

This study investigated changes in gene expression by dietary fat source, i.e., beef tallow, soybean oil, olive oil, and coconut oil (each 3% in feed), in both male and female growing-finishing pigs. Real-time PCR was conducted on seven genes (insulin receptor; INSR, insulin receptor substrate; IRS, phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-triphosphate; PIP3, 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1; PDK1, protein kinase B; Akt, forkhead box protein O1; FOXO1 and cGMP-inhibited 3', 5'-cyclic phosphodiesterase; PDE3) located upstream of the insulin signaling pathway in the longissimus dorsi muscle (LM) of pigs. The INSR, IRS, PIP3, and PDE3 genes showed significantly differential expression in barrow pigs. Expression of the PIP3 and FOXO1 genes was significantly different among the four dietary groups in gilt pigs. In particular, the PIP3 gene showed the opposite expression pattern between barrow and gilt pigs. These results show that dietary fat source affected patterns of gene expression according to animal gender. Further, the results indicate that the type of dietary fat affects insulin signaling-related gene expression in the LM of pigs. These results can be applied to livestock production by promoting the use of discriminatory feed supplies.

Functional analysis of expressed sequence tags from the liver and brain of Korean Jindo dogs.

We generated 16,993 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from two libraries containing full-length cDNAs from the brain and liver of the Korean Jindo dog. An additional 365,909 ESTs from other dog breeds were identified from the NCBI dbEST database, and all ESTs were clustered into 28,514 consensus sequences using StackPack. We selected the 7,305 consensus sequences that could be assembled from at least five ESTs and estimated that 12,533 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were present in 97,835 putative SNPs from the 7,305 consensus sequences. We identified 58 Jindo dog-specific SNPs in comparison to other breeds and predicted seven synonymous SNPs and ten non-synonymous SNPs. Using PolyPhen, a program that predicts changes in protein structure and potential effects on protein function caused by amino acid substitutions, three of the non-synonymous SNPs were predicted to result in changes in protein function for proteins expressed by three different genes (TUSC3, ITIH2, and NAT2).