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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #399727
Research Project: Improving Lifetime Productivity in Swine using Systems Biology and Precision Management Approaches

Location: Livestock Bio-Systems

Title: Multi clustering of the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovary transcriptome in gilts with normal cyclicity or delayed puberty reveals genes related to puberty

Author
item WIJESENA, HIRUNI - Orise Fellow
item Keel, Brittney
item Nonneman, Danny - Dan
item Rohrer, Gary
item Snelling, Warren
item Lents, Clay

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/7/2022
Publication Date: 1/18/2023
Citation: Wijesena, H., Keel, B.N., Nonneman, D.J., Rohrer, G.A., Snelling, W.M., Lents, C.A. 2023. Multi clustering of the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovary transcriptome in gilts with normal cyclicity or delayed puberty reveals genes related to puberty [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Plant and Animal Genome Conference. January 13-18, 2023, San Diego, California. PE0874.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Failure to reach puberty is a main reason gilts are culled from the herd. To understand the physiological causes of delayed puberty, the transcriptome of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovary axis in delayed puberty (DP; n=8) and cyclic control gilts in the follicular (FC; n=8) and midluteal phase (LC; n=8) of the estrous cycle were evaluated in three comparisons: 1) DP vs. FC, 2) DP vs. LC, 3) FC vs. LC. A three-way gene ' individual ' tissue clustering was performed using tensor decomposition to obtain gene expression modules that simultaneously explore transcriptome variation across individuals and tissues. The number of differentially expressed genes was less in the hypothalamus (26, 32, 11) compared to pituitary (392, 1,431, 2,866) and ovary (1,011, 209, 990) for comparisons 1 through 3, respectively. Pituitary and ovary specific gene modules were found to be associated with puberty (P=0.0001 to 0.07). A tensor projection model was then used to identify puberty associated genes within gene modules. Several genes identified in the modules were differentially expressed in the pituitary and ovary. These include OXTR, RUNX2 (ovary), and PRL (pituitary) being less expressed in DP compared to FC gilts and IGF1R (ovary) being more highly expressed in DP compared to LC gilts. A combined approach that utilized gene expression comparisons between age matched cyclic and delayed puberty gilts and simultaneous clustering of multi-individual, multi-tissue expression data provide novel insights into tissues and genes with greater contribution to the regulation of puberty attainment.