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WP5 - ​Influence of maternal diet on epigenetic programming of offspring

WP Leader: Prof. Jerry Wells – WU
Deputy WP leader: Dr. Elisabetta Giuffra – INRA
Involved partners: WU, INRA, DIAGEN
Background
SCFA (mainly acetate, propionate, and butyrate) are strong epigenetic modifiers mainly produced by the gut microbiota in the colon from the fermentation of non-digestible fibre. In pigs, it is well known that fibre fermentation will result in higher concentrations of SCFA and that fermentable fibre sources such as sugar beet pulp usually increase the production of acetate but less fermentable fibre sources such as wheat bran can result in the production of more butyrate and propionate. To date, nothing is known in pigs about the epigenetic effects of SCFA. Recently, WU has measured significant effects of acetate on gene expression in porcine immune cells and intestinal organoids in vitro.
Objectives
  • To conduct an in vivo experiment with different isocaloric diets (high-fibre, no fibre + acetate, no fibre control) and establish a biorepository of a panel of tissues and cells
  • To identify differentially expressed genes affected in 2 target tissues in utero and whether such differences are also observed two months after weaning
  • To characterize the same tissues by genome-wide chromatin profiling (ATAC-seq) and perform integrative analysis with transcriptional data
Tasks
  • T5.1 - Implementation of the in vivo experiment
  • T5.2 - Identification of differentially transcribed genes from offspring and fetuses
  • T5.3 - Identification of differentially accessible chromatin regions from offspring and fetuses and integrated analyses
WP1 - Sample collection and assays-by-sequence

WP2 - New annotation maps of pig and chicken genomes

WP3 - FAANG Data Coordination, Standardisation and Integration

​WP4 - Improving predictive models for genomic selection

​WP5 - Influence of maternal diet on epigenetic programming of offspring

​WP6 - Outreach, dissemination and training

WP7 - Project management and consortium coordination
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​WP8 - Ethics