Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals early pregnancy-specific genes expressed in peripheral blood of pregnant sows

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 5;9(12):e114036. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114036. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Early and accurate diagnosis of pregnancy is important for effective management of an economical pig farm. Besides the currently available methods used in early diagnosis of sows, circulating nucleic acids in peripheral blood may contain some early pregnancy-specific molecular markers. For the first time, microarray analysis of peripheral blood from pregnant sows versus non-pregnant sows identified 127 up-regulated and 56 down-regulated genes at day 14 post-insemination. Gene Ontology annotation grouped the total differently expressed genes into 3 significantly enriched terms, cell surface receptor linked signal transduction, G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway and regulation of vesicle-mediated transport. Signaling pathway analysis revealed the only one significantly changed pathway was arachidonic acid metabolism. Of the differently expressed genes, nine (including LPAR3, RXFP4, GALP, CBR1, CBR2, GPX6, USP18, LHB and NR5A1) were found to exert function related to early pregnancy processes. This study provides a clue that differentially abundant RNAs in maternal peripheral blood can help to identify the molecular markers of early pregnancy in pigs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Endometrium / growth & development
  • Endometrium / metabolism
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Humans
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis*
  • Pregnancy
  • RNA, Messenger / biosynthesis*
  • Signal Transduction
  • Swine
  • Transcriptome / genetics*

Substances

  • RNA, Messenger

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture R & D Program (grant number 20100222, 2010), Kunming Bureau of science and technology Key Program (grant number 09H130302, 2011), Key Development of New Transgenic Breeds Programs (grant number 2009ZX08009-146B, 2009) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT1191). The funders had no role in study design and data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.