College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item Comparative transcriptome in large-scale human and cattle populations(Springer Nature, 2022-08-22) Yao, Yuelin; Liu, Shuli; Xia, Charley; Gao, Yahui; Pan, Zhangyuan; Canela-Xandri, Oriol; Khamseh, Ava; Rawlik, Konrad; Wang, Sheng; Li, Bingjie; Zhang, Yi; Pairo-Castineira, Erola; D’Mellow, Kenton; Li, Xiujin; Yan, Ze; Li, Cong-jun; Yu, Ying; Zhang, Shengli; Ma, Li; Cole, John B.; Ross, Pablo J.; Zhou, Huaijun; Haley, Chris; Liu, George E.; Fang, Lingzhao; Tenesa, AlbertCross-species comparison of transcriptomes is important for elucidating evolutionary molecular mechanisms underpinning phenotypic variation between and within species, yet to date it has been essentially limited to model organisms with relatively small sample sizes. Here, we systematically analyze and compare 10,830 and 4866 publicly available RNA-seq samples in humans and cattle, respectively, representing 20 common tissues. Focusing on 17,315 orthologous genes, we demonstrate that mean/median gene expression, inter-individual variation of expression, expression quantitative trait loci, and gene co-expression networks are generally conserved between humans and cattle. By examining large-scale genome-wide association studies for 46 human traits (average n = 327,973) and 45 cattle traits (average n = 24,635), we reveal that the heritability of complex traits in both species is significantly more enriched in transcriptionally conserved than diverged genes across tissues. In summary, our study provides a comprehensive comparison of transcriptomes between humans and cattle, which might help decipher the genetic and evolutionary basis of complex traits in both species.Item Temporal transcriptome changes induced by MDV in marek's disease-resistant and -susceptible inbred chickens(Springer Nature, 2011-10-12) Yu, Ying; Luo, Juan; Mitra, Apratim; Chang, Shuang; Tian, Fei; Zhang, Huanmin; Yuan, Ping; Zhou, Huaijun; Song, JiuzhouMarek's disease (MD) is a lymphoproliferative disease in chickens caused by Marek's disease virus (MDV) and characterized by T cell lymphoma and infiltration of lymphoid cells into various organs such as liver, spleen, peripheral nerves and muscle. Resistance to MD and disease risk have long been thought to be influenced both by genetic and environmental factors, the combination of which contributes to the observed outcome in an individual. We hypothesize that after MDV infection, genes related to MD-resistance or -susceptibility may exhibit different trends in transcriptional activity in chicken lines having a varying degree of resistance to MD. In order to study the mechanisms of resistance and susceptibility to MD, we performed genome-wide temporal expression analysis in spleen tissues from MD-resistant line 63, susceptible line 72 and recombinant congenic strain M (RCS-M) that has a phenotype intermediate between lines 63 and 72 after MDV infection. Three time points of the MDV life cycle in chicken were selected for study: 5 days post infection (dpi), 10dpi and 21dpi, representing the early cytolytic, latent and late cytolytic stages, respectively. We observed similar gene expression profiles at the three time points in line 63 and RCS-M chickens that are both different from line 72. Pathway analysis using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) showed that MDV can broadly influence the chickens irrespective of whether they are resistant or susceptible to MD. However, some pathways like cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular disease were found to be affected only in line 72; while some networks related to cell-mediated immune response and antigen presentation were enriched only in line 63 and RCS-M. We identified 78 and 30 candidate genes associated with MD resistance, at 10 and 21dpi respectively, by considering genes having the same trend of expression change after MDV infection in lines 63 and RCS-M. On the other hand, by considering genes with the same trend of expression change after MDV infection in lines 72 and RCS-M, we identified 78 and 43 genes at 10 and 21dpi, respectively, which may be associated with MD-susceptibility. By testing temporal transcriptome changes using three representative chicken lines with different resistance to MD, we identified 108 candidate genes for MD-resistance and 121 candidate genes for MD-susceptibility over the three time points. Genes included in our resistance or susceptibility genes lists that are also involved in more than 5 biofunctions, such as CD8α, IL8, USP18, and CTLA4, are considered to be important genes involved in MD-resistance or -susceptibility. We were also able to identify several biofunctions related with immune response that we believe play an important role in MD-resistance.Item miRNA-dysregulation associated with tenderness variation induced by acute stress in Angus cattle(Springer Nature, 2012-06-01) Zhao, Chunping; Tian, Fei; Yu, Ying; Liu, George; Zan, Linsen; Updike, M Scott; Song, JiuzhoumiRNAs are a class of small, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs that perform post-transcriptional repression of target genes by binding to 3’ untranslated regions. Research has found that miRNAs involved in the regulation of many metabolic processes. Here we uncovered that the beef quality of Angus cattle sharply diversified after acute stress. By performing miRNA microarray analysis, 13 miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in stressed group compared to control group. Using a bioinformatics method, 135 protein-coding genes were predicted as the targets of significant differentially expressed miRNAs. Gene Ontology (GO) term and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) mined that these target genes involved in some important pathways, which may have impact on meat quality and beef tenderness.Item Analyses of inter-individual variations of sperm DNA methylation and their potential implications in cattle(Springer Nature, 2019-11-21) Liu, Shuli; Fang, Lingzhao; Zhou, Yang; Santos, Daniel J.A.; Xiang, Ruidong; Daetwyler, Hans D.; Chamberlain, Amanda J.; Cole, John B.; Li, Cong-jun; Yu, Ying; Ma, Li; Zhang, Shengli; Liu, George E.DNA methylation has been shown to be involved in many biological processes, including X chromosome inactivation in females, paternal genomic imprinting, and others.Item Epigenomics and genotype-phenotype association analyses reveal conserved genetic architecture of complex traits in cattle and human(Springer Nature, 2020-07-03) Liu, Shuli; Yu, Ying; Zhang, Shengli; Cole, John B.; Tenesa, AlbertLack of comprehensive functional annotations across a wide range of tissues and cell types severely hinders the biological interpretations of phenotypic variation, adaptive evolution, and domestication in livestock. Here we used a combination of comparative epigenomics, genome-wide association study (GWAS), and selection signature analysis, to shed light on potential adaptive evolution in cattle. We cross-mapped 8 histone marks of 1300 samples from human to cattle, covering 178 unique tissues/cell types. By uniformly analyzing 723 RNA-seq and 40 whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) datasets in cattle, we validated that cross-mapped histone marks captured tissue-specific expression and methylation, reflecting tissue-relevant biology. Through integrating cross-mapped tissue-specific histone marks with large-scale GWAS and selection signature results, we for the first time detected relevant tissues and cell types for 45 economically important traits and artificial selection in cattle. For instance, immune tissues are significantly associated with health and reproduction traits, multiple tissues for milk production and body conformation traits (reflecting their highly polygenic architecture), and thyroid for the different selection between beef and dairy cattle. Similarly, we detected relevant tissues for 58 complex traits and diseases in humans and observed that immune and fertility traits in humans significantly correlated with those in cattle in terms of relevant tissues, which facilitated the identification of causal genes for such traits. For instance, PIK3CG, a gene highly specifically expressed in mononuclear cells, was significantly associated with both age-at-menopause in human and daughter-still-birth in cattle. ICAM, a T cell-specific gene, was significantly associated with both allergic diseases in human and metritis in cattle. Collectively, our results highlighted that comparative epigenomics in conjunction with GWAS and selection signature analyses could provide biological insights into the phenotypic variation and adaptive evolution. Cattle may serve as a model for human complex traits, by providing additional information beyond laboratory model organisms, particularly when more novel phenotypes become available in the near future.Item Sustaining Interferon Induction by a High-Passage Atypical Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Strain(Nature Publishing Group, 2016-11-02) Ma, Zexu; Yu, Ying; Xiao, Yueqiang; Opriessnig, Tanja; Wang, Rong; Yang, Liping; Nan, Yuchen; Samal, Siba K.; Halbur, Patrick G.; Zhang, Yan-JinPorcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strain A2MC2 induces type I interferons in cultured cells. The objective of this study was to attenuate this strain by serial passaging in MARC-145 cells and assess its virulence and immunogenicity in pigs. The A2MC2 serially passaged 90 times (A2MC2-P90) retains the feature of interferon induction. The A2MC2-P90 replicates faster with a higher virus yield than wild type A2MC2 virus. Infection of primary pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) also induces interferons. Sequence analysis showed that the A2MC2-P90 has genomic nucleic acid identity of 99.8% to the wild type but has a deletion of 543 nucleotides in nsp2. The deletion occurred in passage 60. The A2MC2-P90 genome has a total of 35 nucleotide variations from the wild type, leading to 26 amino acid differences. Inoculation of three-week-old piglets showed that A2MC2-P90 is avirulent and elicits immune response. Compared with Ingelvac PRRS® MLV strain, A2MC2-P90 elicits higher virus neutralizing antibodies. The attenuated IFN inducing A2MC2-P90 should be useful for development of an improved PRRSV vaccine.