Transcriptomic Regulations of Heat Stress Response in the liver of Lactating Dairy Cows
Heat stress (HS) has become a major challenge in the dairy industry around the world. Although numerous measures have been taken to alleviate the HS impact on milk production, the cellular level response to HS remains unclear in dairy cows. The objective of this study was to dissect functional alterations based on transcriptomic dynamics in the liver of cows under HS. Dairy cows exposed to HS exhibited both decreased feed intake and milk yield. Through liver transcriptomic analysis, differentially expressed genes were identified among three experimental conditions, including heat stress (HS), pair-fed (PF), and thermoneutral (TN) groups. We observed the upregulation of protein folding and inflammation-related genes in the HS group, while the mitochondrial genes were downregulated. Gene functional enrichment also revealed that mitochondria function and oxidative phosphorylation were dysregulated under HS. The liver transcriptome analysis generated a comprehensive gene expression regulation network upon HS in lactating dairy cows. Overall, this study provides novel insights into molecular and metabolic changes of cows conditioned under HS. Our results could facilitate the development of efficient biomarkers to mitigate the negative effect of HS on dairy cow health and productivity. Overall design: RNA-seq was to detect the differential expression genes across three environmental conditions: Heat stress, thermoneutrality, and pair-fed