Changes in colostrum ingredients of Hu sheep, as well as the missense mutation genes associated with colostrum yield

Abstract

This study focused on the changes in the composition and immune evolution in milk from birth to 144 h postpartum and the genes associated with the colostrum yield of Hu sheep. Twelve Hu sheep, which were bred carefully under animal health standards and have a litter size of two kids and similar gestation length (149 ± 1 days), were used. Lambs were transferred into their own cots to avoid interference. The compositional content (i.e., fat, protein, and lactose) and some other properties, including daily colostrum yield, DM, and SNF, were determined. In addition, immunity molecules (IgG, IgA, and IgM concentrations) received remarkable attention. The DM, SNF, fat, and protein contents were higher in the first days postpartum and then dropped quickly from the time of birth to 144 h postpartum. However, the lactose content displayed an increasing pattern and reached normal milk percentage at 48 h. The highest IgG (103.17 mg/mL), IgA (352.82 μg/mL), and IgM (2.79 mg/mL) colostrum concentrations were observed at partum, decreased quickly, and finally stabilized. The change law of concentration of IgA and IgM in colostrum are the same with IgG. Furthermore, the whole-genome resequencing was performed, and a missense variant locus in the SRC gene and two missense locus variants in the HIF1A gene were significantly associated with the colostrum yield of sheep by using the whole-genome selection signal detection analysis. In conclusions, colostrum contains abundant nutrients especially immunoglobulin, and the HIF1A gene may be used as candidate genes for colostrum yield, which has important information as a basic knowledge for the Hu sheep breeding program.

Keywords:

• Colostrum
• colostrum composition
• Hu sheep
• immunity
• candidate gene

Acknowledgments

We thank Yi Ding for their contribution to the revision of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author contribution

Conceptualization, Guiqiong Liu, and Xunping Jiang; Methodology, Aimin Zhou and Xunping Jiang; Investigation, Aimin Zhou and Yuqing Chong; Resources, Qiusong Guo, Shaxuan Chi, Mingjing Wang, Dongdong Bo, Yinan Yan, Ruixue Hu, Ling Sun, and Xin Mao; Supervision, Xunping Jiang; Writing – Original Draft, Aimin Zhou and Yuqing Chong; Writing – Review & Editing, all authors.

Data availability statement

The whole-genome resequencing datasets of Hu sheep supporting the conclusions of this article have been submitted to the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under Bio Project ID PRJNA675390.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA(CARS-38).