Maternal nutrition during pregnancy is one of the major intrauterine environmental factors that influence fetal development by significantly altering the expression of genes that might have a consequence on the physiological, morphological, and metabolic performance of the offspring in the postnatal period. The impact of maternal dietary protein on the expression of genes in sheep fetal skeletal muscle development is not well understood. The current study aims to investigate the impact of high and low maternal dietary protein on the holistic mRNA expression in the sheep fetal skeletal muscle. Dams were exposed to an isoenergetic high-protein diet (HP, 160–270 g/day), low-protein diet (LP, 73–112 g/day), and standard protein (SP, 119–198 g/day) diets during pregnancy. Fetal skeletal muscles were obtained at the 105th day of pregnancy and mRNA expression profiles were evaluated using Affymetrix GeneChip™ Ovine Gene 1.0 ST Array. The transcriptional analysis revealed a total of 323, 354, and 14 genes were differentially regulated (fold change > 2 and false discovery rate ≤ 0.05) in HP vs. SP, LP vs. HP, and SP vs. LP, respectively. Several myogenic genes, including MYOD1, MYH2, MYH1, are significantly upregulated, while genes related to the immune system, such as CXCL11, HLA-E, CXCL10, CXCL9, TLRs, are significantly downregulated in the fetal muscle of the HP group compared to those of SP and LP group. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the majority of these genes are involved in pathways related to the immune system and diseases. The results of our study demonstrate that both augmented and restricted dietary proteins in maternal diet during pregnancy alter the expression of genes as well as the offspring's genetic marks.

孕期母体营养是影响胎儿发育的主要宫内环境因素之一，通过显着改变基因的表达，可能对出生后后代的生理、形态和代谢性能产生影响。母体膳食蛋白质对绵羊胎儿骨骼肌发育中基因表达的影响尚不清楚。目前的研究旨在研究高和低母体膳食蛋白质对绵羊胎儿骨骼肌整体 mRNA 表达的影响。水坝暴露于等能高蛋白饮食（HP，160-270 克/天）、低蛋白饮食（LP，73-112 克/天）和标准蛋白质（SP，119-198 克/天）饮食怀孕期间。在怀孕第 105 天获取胎儿骨骼肌，并使用 Affymetrix GeneChip™ Ovine Gene 1.0 ST Array 评估 mRNA 表达谱。转录分析显示，HP 与 SP、LP 与 HP 和 SP 与 LP 中总共有 323、354 和 14 个基因受到差异调节（倍数变化 > 2 且错误发现率≤ 0.05）。几种生肌基因，包括MYOD1、MYH2、MYH1显着上调，而与SP 和 LP 相比，HP 组胎儿肌肉中与免疫系统相关的基因，如CXCL11、HLA-E、CXCL10、CXCL9、TLRs显着下调组。生物信息学分析表明，这些基因中的大多数都参与了与免疫系统和疾病相关的通路。我们的研究结果表明，孕期母体饮食中增加和限制的膳食蛋白质都会改变基因的表达以及后代的遗传标记。