DIFFERENTIAL ENDOMETRIAL TRANSCRIPT EXPRESSION BETWEEN YORKSHIRE AND THE PROLIFIC MEISHAN BREED OF PIGS DURING THE CRITICAL STAGE OF CONCEPTUS ELONGATION AND EARLY ATTACHMENT

Authors: TUGGLE, C - IA SU, DEPT OF ANIMAL SC; ZHAO, S - IA SU, DEPT OF ANIMAL SCI; WANG, Y - IA SU, DEPT OF ANIMAL SCI; COURTURE, O - IA SU, DEPT OF ANIMAL SCI; Kuhar, Daniel; Lunney, Joan; ROSS, J - UNIV OF MO-COLUMBIA; LUCY, M - UNIV OF MO-COLUMBIA; DEKKERS, J - IA SU, DEPT OF ANIMAL SCI; GEISERT, R - UNIV OF MO-COLUMBIA

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/5/2008
Publication Date: 1/15/2008
Citation: Tuggle, C.K., Zhao, S.H., Wang, Y.F., Courture, O.P., Kuhar, D.J., Lunney, J.K., Ross, J.W., Lucy, M., Dekkers, J.C., Geisert, R.D. 2008. Differential endometrial transcript expression between yorkshire and the prolific meishan breed of pigs during the critical stage of conceptus elongation and early attachment. Plant and Animal Genome Conference.p 730.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Chinese Meishan pig breed is known for larger average litters, as compared to commercial breeds. This difference is due to increased embryo survival controlled primarily by the dam and particularly at the implantation stage that initiates at day 11-12 of gestation (d11-12). To identify the genes involved in these processes, we profiled RNA expression patterns in d12 endometrium (n=4) in Meishan and Yorkshire purebred gilts harboring filamentous concepti using the Affymetrix GeneChip®. Over 19,000 genes had at least one sample showing expression among the eight tests; the subset of 12,558 of these with human annotation was defined as the endometrium transcriptome. Using a mixed model ANOVA, we identified 2,723 probesets as putatively differentially expressed (DE) between breeds (P < 0.02; q < 0.1). Using NIH-DAVID software, we identified gene ontology terms associated with the annotated DE probesets (n=1,637) that were significantly over-represented in the endometrial transcriptome compared between breeds. Associated terms included ribosome function/protein biosynthesis for genes highly expressed in Meishan gilts and regulation of transcription and tight junction/apical junction/zinc binding for genes more highly expressed in Yorkshire gilts. Breed differences in expression for 17 of 23 DE genes assayed were confirmed using real-time Q-PCR. Several of these, as well as additional genes, are being assayed using in situ hybridization to determine possible spatial expression differences. These include genes with greater than two-fold breed differences in expression that are involved in cell contact/adherence (5), cell migration/remodeling (3), decidualization/implantation (3) as well as estrogen signaling and other transcriptional regulation (13).