Transcriptome analysis and identification of significantly differentially expressed genes in Holstein calves subjected to severe thermal stress

Abstract

RNA-Seq analysis was used to characterize transcriptome response of Holstein calves to thermal stress. A total of eight animals aged between 2 and 3 months were randomly selected and subjected to thermal stress corresponding to a temperature humidity index of 95 in an environmentally controlled house for 12 h consecutively for 3 days. A set of 15,787 unigenes were found to be expressed and after a threshold of threefold change, and a Q value <0.05; 502, 394, and 376 genes were found to be differentially expressed on days 1, 2, and 3 out of which 343, 261 and 256 genes were upregulated and 159, 133, and 120 genes were downregulated. Only 356 genes out of these were expressed on all 3 days, and only they were considered as significantly differentially expressed. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that ten pathways were significantly enriched; the top two among them were protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum and MAPK signaling pathways. These results suggest that thermal stress triggered a complex response in Holstein calves and the animals adjusted their physiological and metabolic processes to survive. Many of the genes identified in this study have not been previously reported to be involved in thermal stress response. The results of this study extend our understanding of the animal's response to thermal stress and some of the identified genes may prove useful in the efforts to breed Holstein cattle with superior thermotolerance, which might help in minimizing production loss due to thermal stress.

Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Potential Regulatory Genes Related to Heat Tolerance in Holstein Dairy Cattle

“…Transcriptome sequencing has the potential to recognize the candidate genes for the complex traits or disease. Several studies in cattle [36], poultry [37], and swine [38], highlighted the genes of interest for heat stress in animals. Nonetheless, it is difficult to understand the multifaceted changes at molecular level in response to heat stress in the animals.…”

“…Moreover, our outcomes revealed that TGFB2 and FGF2 are part of MAPK signaling pathway. Previous work has discussed the activation of MAPK signaling pathway mediated by several extra-cellular stimuli, including UV radiation, osmotic shock and heat shock [32,36,44,45]. Of note, TGFB2 as stress-related gene was significantly induced when human lung fibroblast cell lines were exposed to radiofrequency radiation [46].…”

Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Insights on Male Infertility in Octopus maya Under Chronic Thermal Stress

“…The nuclear factor NF-kappa-B p100 subunit (NFKB2) is an inducible transcription factor that plays a central role in the inflammatory response and immune function, which is activated quickly by a wide group of agents and cell stress (Srikanth et al, 2017; Sun, 2017). It seems that NF-Kb is an innate immune system pathway evolutionarily conserved and present in mollusks (Castellanos-Martínez et al, 2014).…”

“…It seems that NF-Kb is an innate immune system pathway evolutionarily conserved and present in mollusks (Castellanos-Martínez et al, 2014). NFKB2 presented significant higher relative expression under chronic thermal stress at 28 and 30°C (Srikanth et al, 2017; Sun, 2017). This response confirms the inflammatory processes observed in the testis in both temperatures by López-Galindo et al (2019).…”

Genome-Wide Transcriptome and Metabolome Analyses Provide Novel Insights and Suggest a Sex-Specific Response to Heat Stress in Pigs

“…Previous studies have shown that heat stress triggers a complex array of gene expression and metabolic changes in livestock, resulting in the modulation of a wide variety of pathways involved in the heat stress response, the inflammatory response, DNA damage repair, chaperone use, etc. [5,[17][18][19]. Similarly, a variety of metabolites involved in carbohydrate, amino acid, fatty acid and amine metabolism are modulated, including glucose, lactate, alanine, cysteine, isoleucine, etc.…”