The present study sought to evaluate mRNA expression profiles in the cultured dermal fibroblasts of Tharparkar (zebu) and Karan-Fries (zebu, Tharparkar × taurine, Holstein Friesian) cattle in response to heat stress. Bioinformatics’ analysis identified temperature-regulated biological processes and pathways. Biological processes overrepresented among the earliest genes induced by temperature stress include regulation of stress responses, protein repair, metabolism, protein transport, cell division, and apoptosis. The present microarray platform contains 51,338 synthesized oligonucleotide probes corresponding to at least 36,713 unigenes. A total of 11,183 and 8126 transcripts were differentially expressed with a fold change of ≥ 2 in Tharparkar and Karan-Fries cattle, respectively. Randomly selected real-time validation showed 83.33% correlation with microarray data. Functional annotation and pathway study of the differentially expressed transcripts or genes (DEGs) reveal that upregulated genes significantly (P < 0.05) affect protein processing and NOD-like receptor pathways (NLRs), while downregulated genes were significantly (P < 0.05) found to be associated with cell cycle, metabolism, and protein transport. Gene expression changes include activation of heat shock factors (HSFs), increased expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs), and apoptosis, while decreasing protein synthesis and another metabolism. These findings provide insights into the underlying mechanism of the physiology of heat stress in Tharparkar and Karan-Fries cattle. Understanding the biology and mechanisms of heat stress is critical to developing approaches to ameliorate current production issues for improving animal performance and agriculture economics in tropical climatic conditions. In conclusion, the present study indicates that heat stress differentially affects the expression of the significant number of genes associated with stress response, metabolism, apoptosis, and protein transport in dermal fibroblasts of Tharparkar and Karan-Fries cattle.

Present study was designed to investigate the changes in physiological reactions and blood flow during different seasons in Murrah buffaloes. Six Murrah buffalo heifers of 18-24 months were selected as experimental animals. The respiration rate (RR), heart rate (HR) and blood pressure was measured through BPL-Excello multi parameter monitor. Rectal temperatures were recorded with electronic thermometer. Skin surface temperatures at the different body sites were recorded using infrared thermometer (Metravi MT-2). The blood flow was measured on Perimed Multichannel Laser Doppler system using skin perfusion probe 408 at dorsal region, abdomen region and middle ear. Results showed a significant difference for respiration rate (P<0.001); rectal temperature (P<0.05) and heart rate (P<0.001) during summer and winter season. The mean blood pressure was 93.74/186.36 mmHg in summer and 97.40/198.08 mmHg in winter, respectively. In the present experiment, both diastolic and systolic pressure differed significantly (P<0.001) during different seasons. The mean skin surface temperature in summer was 37.03±0.39, 36.12±0.27 and 33.15±0.98°C at dorsal, abdomen and middle ear, respectively; whereas, during winter it was 29.87±0.69, 29.92±0.40 and 23.82±1.12°C at dorsal, abdomen and middle ear, respectively. The skin surface temperature among the different parts of the body differed significantly (P<0.001). During summer, the mean blood flow was 4.71±0.49, 14.85±1.63 and 16.72±1.47 PU; whereas, during winter, it was low, 1.10±0.16, 8.96±0.58 and 12.16±0.95 PU at dorsal, abdomen and middle ear, respectively. The difference in the blood flow among the different parts of the body differed significantly (P<0.001) in summer and winter. The results indicated that blood flow was positively correlated with temperature of the body parts and it varied in different seasons. This study concluded that, summer stress evokes a series of physiological changes in the Murrah buffalo’s, which affects production during summer season.