摘要
Mutton and lamb sales continue to grow globally at a rate of 5% per year. However, sheep farming struggles with low profit margins due to high feed costs and modest carcass yields. Selecting those sheep expected to convert feed efficiently and have high carcass merit, as early as possible in their life cycle, could significantly improve the profitability of sheep farming. Unfortunately, direct measurement of feed conversion efficiency (via residual feed intake [RFI]) and carcass merit is a labor-intensive and expensive procedure. Thus, indirect, marker-assisted evaluation of these traits has been explored as a means of reducing the cost of its direct measurement. One promising and potentially inexpensive route to discover biomarkers of RFI and/or carcass merit is metabolomics. Using quantitative metabolomics, we profiled the blood serum metabolome (i.e., the sum of all measurable metabolites) associated with sheep RFI and carcass merit and identified candidate biomarkers of these traits. The study included 165 crossbred ram-lambs that underwent direct measurement of feed consumption to determine their RFI classification (i.e., low vs. high) using the GrowSafe System over a period 40 d. Carcass merit was evaluated after slaughter using standardized methods. Prior to being sent to slaughter, one blood sample was drawn from each animal, and serum prepared and frozen at −80 °C to limit metabolite degradation. A subset of the serum samples was selected based on divergent RFI and carcass quality for further metabolomic analyses. The analyses were conducted using three analytical methods (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, and inductively coupled mass spectrometry), which permitted the identification and quantification of 161 unique metabolites. Biomarker analyses identified three significant (P
摘要译文
全球羊肉和羔羊的销售继续以每年5％的速度增长。然而，由于高昂的饲料成本和适中的car体产量，绵羊养殖业的利润率很低。选择那些有望在其生命周期中尽早转换饲料并具有高car体价值的绵羊，可以显着提高绵羊养殖的盈利能力。不幸的是，直接测量饲料转化效率（通过残留饲料摄入量[RFI]）和car体价值是一项劳动密集型且昂贵的过程。因此，已经探索了对这些性状进行间接的，标记辅助的评估，以减少直接测量的成本。代谢组学是发现RFI和/或car体价值的生物标志物的一种有前途且潜在廉价的途径。使用定量代谢组学，我们对与绵羊RFI和car体价值相关的血清代谢组（即所有可测量代谢物的总和）进行了分析，并确定了这些特征的候选生物标志物。该研究包括165头杂交公羊羔羊，它们在40天内使用GrowSafe系统进行了饲料消耗的直接测量以确定其RFI分类（即低与高）。屠宰后，使用标准化方法评估cas体价值。在被送往屠宰场之前，从每只动物身上抽取一份血液样本，并准备血清并在-80°C冷冻以限制代谢物降解。根据不同的RFI和car体质量选择一部分血清样品，以进行进一步的代谢组学分析。分析使用三种分析方法（核磁共振波谱法，液相色谱质谱法和电感耦合质谱法）进行，从而可以鉴定和定量161种独特的代谢物。生物标志物分析确定了三个重要的（P
Seyed Ali Goldansaz [1]; Susan Markus [2]; Mark Berjanskii [3]; Manoj Rout [3]; An Chi Guo [3]; Zhiquan Wang [1]; Graham Plastow [1]; David S Wishart [3]. Candidate serum metabolite biomarkers of residual feed intake and carcass merit in sheep[J]. Journal of Animal Science, 2020,98(10)