Experimental and epidemiological studies suggest that maternal nutritional status during early pregnancy, including the period around the time of conception, may induce long-lasting epigenetic changes in the offspring. However, this remains largely unexplored in livestock. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate if modification of the maternal diet of sheep (CTR: control; UND: 50% undernutrition) during the peri-conceptional period (42 days in total: -14/+28 from mating), would impact CpG methylation in muscle tissue (Longissimus dorsi) of adult offspring (11.5 months old). Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS), identified 262 (Edge-R, FDR<0.05) and 686 (Logistic Regression, FDR <0.001) differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between the UND and CTR groups. Gene ontology (GO) analysis identified genes related to development, functions of the muscular system and steroid hormone receptor activity within the DMRs. The data reported here show that nutritional stress during early pregnancy leads to epigenetic modifications in the muscle of the resulting offspring, with possible implications for cardiac dysfunction, muscle physiology and meat production.

中文翻译：

---

简讯：母体围孕期营养不良影响成年后代绵羊全基因组肌肉甲基化

实验和流行病学研究表明，孕早期（包括受孕前后）的母体营养状况可能会导致后代发生持久的表观遗传变化。然而，这在牲畜中仍然很大程度上未被探索。因此，本研究的目的是评估是否在围孕期（总共 42 天：-14/+28 从交配）期间改变母羊饮食（CTR：对照；UND：50% 营养不良），会影响成年后代（11.5 个月大）的肌肉组织（背最长肌）中的 CpG 甲基化。简化表示亚硫酸氢盐测序 (RRBS)，在 UND 和 CTR 组之间鉴定出 262 个（Edge-R，FDR <0.05）和 686 个（Logistic 回归，FDR <0.001）差异甲基化区域（DMR）。基因本体论 (GO) 分析确定了与 DMR 内的发育、肌肉系统功能和类固醇激素受体活性相关的基因。这里报告的数据表明，早孕期间的营养压力会导致后代肌肉发生表观遗传修饰，可能对心脏功能障碍、肌肉生理学和肉类生产产生影响。