Perfil transcripcional de la glándula mamaria durante la lactación y el secado de cabras Murciano-Granadinas

Abstract

The study presented here aimed to characterise the gene profile of the caprine mammary gland during lactation by RNA Sequencing. Biopsies of mammary tissue (N = 21) were collected at three lactation points representing 60 days (T1), 210 days (T2) and 270 days (T3, dry period) after parturition. The analysis of expression data revealed 1,348 (T1 vs T3) and 1,567 (T2 vs T3) differentially expressed (DE) hits at the gene-level, as well as 2766 (T1 vs T3) and 2400 (T2 vs T3) DE hits at the transcript-level by employing the HISAT2-StringTieDESeq2 pipeline. Functional annotation of DE genes captured terms linked to the synthesis of milk components, such as steroid biosynthesis, lipid biosynthesis and milk proteins. Our results indicate that the reduction of energy supply during the dry period involves an activation of the AMPK signalling pathway and a shutdown of anabolic processes in the mammary gland.