Transcriptomic Changes in the Rumen Epithelium of Cattle after the Induction of Acidosis

Abstract

The transition from normal forage to a highly fermentable diet to achieve rapid weight gain in the cattle industry can induce ruminal acidosis. The molecular host mechanisms that occur in acidosis are largely unknown. Therefore, the histology and transcriptome profiling of rumen epithelium was investigated in normal and acidosis animals to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the disease. The rumen epithelial transcriptome from acidosis (n=3) and control (n=3) Holstein steers was obtained using RNA-sequencing. The mean values of clean reads were 70,975,460±984,046 and 71,142,189±834,526 in normal and acidosis samples, respectively. In total, 1,074 differentially expressed genes were identified in the two groups (PIL1B, CXCL5, IL36A, and IL36B were significantly down-regulated in acidosis rumen tissue samples. The results suggest that rapid shifts to rich fermentable carbohydrates diets cause an increase in the concentration of ruminal volatile fatty acids, tissue damage, and significant changes in transcriptome profiles of rumen epithelial.

Keywords

• acidosis
• cattle
• ruminal epithelial tissue
• transcriptome