Title : Ammonia exposure alters genes expression of porcine uterus
Abstract:
The health production and reproduction of sow are critical importance to pig farms. With the development of intensive large-scale pig industry, air quality in housing is particularly poor. Atmospheric ammonia is a common problem in pig production, which causes remarkable economic losses as well as potential welfare problems of the pig industry. However, the molecular mechanisms and metabolic pathways in sow uterus altered by high concentrations of ambient ammonia exposure on sow are still unknown. In the present study, high-throughput RNA-Seq was utilized to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in sow uterus exposed to 3 ppm (Control), 25 ppm (A25), 50 ppm (A50), 75 ppm (A75) levels of ammonia. The transcriptome and gene cluster analysis showed that A50 and A75 groups have similar gene expression pattern in sow uterus, and lower ammonia levels of Control and A25 groups with similar mode. Differential expression analysis showed that 486 and 130 DEGs (FDR < 0.05) were separately identified in A75 group and A50 group compared with Control group, of which 118 DEGs were common genes in A75 and A50 groups. A total of 2288 and 1034 DEGs (FDR < 0.05) were identified in A75 group and A50 group compared with A25 group and 843 DEGs were common genes. KEGG pathway analysis showed that these 843 DEGs were enriched in calcium signaling pathway (ssc04020), neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction (ssc04080), metabolism, contraction and development of muscle cells related pathways (ssc05410, ssc05414, ssc04261 and ssc04260). This study provides new insights to sow uterus exposed to different levels of environmental ammonia, and it is significant importance for sow health production and safe products in pig industry
