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Updated: Apr 19, 2026
Identification of Coding and Non-coding RNA Classes Expressed in Swine Whole Blood
Published on: November 28, 2018
Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals early pregnancy-specific genes expressed in peripheral blood of pregnant
Junye Shen1, Chuanli Zhou1, Shien Zhu2
1Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agricultural, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P.R. China; Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Early and accurate diagnosis of pregnancy is important for effective management of an economical pig farm. Besides the currently available methods used in early diagnosis of sows, circulating nucleic acids in peripheral blood may contain some early pregnancy-specific molecular markers. For the first time, microarray analysis of peripheral blood from pregnant sows versus non-pregnant sows identified 127 up-regulated and 56 down-regulated genes at day 14 post-insemination. Gene Ontology annotation grouped the total differently expressed genes into 3 significantly enriched terms, cell surface receptor linked signal transduction, G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway and regulation of vesicle-mediated transport. Signaling pathway analysis revealed the only one significantly changed pathway was arachidonic acid metabolism. Of the differently expressed genes, nine (including LPAR3, RXFP4, GALP, CBR1, CBR2, GPX6, USP18, LHB and NR5A1) were found to exert function related to early pregnancy processes. This study provides a clue that differentially abundant RNAs in maternal peripheral blood can help to identify the molecular markers of early pregnancy in pigs.
