A comprehensive transcriptomic survey of pigs can provide a mechanistic understanding of tissue specialization processes underlying economically valuable traits and accelerate their use as a biomedical model. Here we characterize four transcript types (lncRNAs, TUCPs, miRNAs, and circRNAs) and protein-coding genes in 31 adult pig tissues and two cell lines. We uncover the transcriptomic variability among 47 skeletal muscles, and six adipose depots linked to their different origins, metabolism, cell composition, physical activity, and mitochondrial pathways. We perform comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of seven tissues from pigs and nine other vertebrates to reveal that evolutionary divergence in transcription potentially contributes to lineage-specific biology. Long-range promoter–enhancer interaction analysis in subcutaneous adipose tissues across species suggests evolutionarily stable transcription patterns likely attributable to redundant enhancers buffering gene expression patterns against perturbations, thereby conferring robustness during speciation. This study can facilitate adoption of the pig as a biomedical model for human biology and disease and uncovers the molecular bases of valuable traits.

FoxO1: a novel insight into its molecular mechanisms in the regulation of skeletal muscle differentiation and fiber type specification

As health awareness is increasing, consumers have changed their focus with a desire to purchase safer, healthier, and higher quality and nutritional value meat. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dietary apple polyphenol (APP) supplementation in finishing pigs could provide pork with high quality and nutritional value. In the present study, 36 castrated Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire pigs with an average body weight of 71.25 ± 2.40 kg were randomly divided into three treatments and fed with a basal diet supplemented with 0, 400, or 800 mg kg⁻¹ APPs for 7 weeks. The results showed that dietary 800 mg kg⁻¹ APP supplementation not only decreased backfat thickness and abdominal adipose tissue index but also decreased L* (lightness) and b* (yellowness) in the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. The LD muscle crude protein content, the proportions of essential amino acids, flavor amino acids, and total amino acids, as well as the amino acid transporter (SLC7A1, SLC7A2, SLC7A7, SLC1A2) mRNA levels were increased by 800 mg kg⁻¹ APPs. The proportions of docosahexaenoic acid and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and the ratio of PUFA to saturated fatty acid in LD muscle were increased by 400 mg kg⁻¹ APPs. Meanwhile, dietary 400 mg kg⁻¹ and 800 mg kg⁻¹ APP supplementation decreased the contents of blood urea nitrogen and total cholesterol, as well as increased the content of inosinic acid in LD muscle. In conclusion, these results suggested that dietary 800 mg kg⁻¹ APP supplementation improved the carcass traits, meat color, and meat flavor in finishing pigs. These results also suggested that dietary 400 mg kg⁻¹ and 800 mg kg⁻¹ APP supplementation improved the meat nutritional value in finishing pigs. The present study provides effective evidence for the application of APP supplementation for healthy high-quality and nutritional value pork production.

Background: Tannic acid (TA) is potential to reduce diarrhea in weaning pigs, but knowledge about the influence of TA on intestinal barrier integrity and function is still scarce. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary TA supplementation on growth performance, diarrhea rate, intestinal barrier integrity and function of weaned pigs. Methods: A total of 108 crossbred (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) piglets, with an initial average body weight of 6.60 ± 0.27 kg, were allotted to 3 groups (6 pigs/pen and 6 replicates/group) in a randomized complete block design according to their gender and body weight. Piglets were fed the basal diet with 0 (control, CON), 0.2% and 1.0% TA, respectively. The trial lasted for 28 d. Results: Compared with the CON group, dietary 0.2% and 1.0% TA supplementation didn’t affect ADFI, ADG and F:G (P > 0.05), but reduced diarrhea rate, diarrhea index and diarrhea score of piglets (P < 0.05), reduced diamine oxidase (DAO) activity and D-lactic acid concentration in serum (P < 0.01). The higher occludin expression and localization were observed in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum after supplementation with 0.2% or 1.0% TA (P < 0.05). Adding 0.2% TA to diet significantly decreased crypt depth, increased villus height/crypt depth ratio in the duodenum (P < 0.05), and dietary 1.0% TA tended to decrease crypt depth (P < 0.10) and significantly decreased villus height (P < 0.05) of the ileum. Moreover, lower malondialdehyde content in the ileum was detected in the pigs fed 1.0% TA (P < 0.05). In the duodenum, both 0.2% and 1.0% TA groups had higher occludin (OCLN) mRNA and 0.2% TA group had higher zonula occludens-2 (ZO-2) level (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, dietary 1.0% TA supplementation tended to up-regulate OCLN mRNA levels in the jejunum (P < 0.10) and 0.2% TA supplementation tended to up-regulate zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) mRNA levels in the ileum (P < 0.10). Conclusion: In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 0.2% or 1.0% TA could effectively alleviate post-weaning diarrhea without altering growth performance in weaned piglets, which might be achieved by improving intestinal barrier integrity and function.