45 Vitamin and mineral supplementation in pregnant F0 beef dams may induce persistent changes in the hepatic transcriptome of F1 heifers

Abstract Supplementation with vitamins and minerals (VTM) in the diet of pregnant F0 dams influences offspring development; however, long-term effects on metabolic organs, including the liver, remain unclear. This study evaluated hepatic gene expression in F1 heifers born to F0 dams fed a basal diet with VTM (n = 8) or without VTM (CON; n = 7) throughout gestation. After birth, F1 heifers were managed as a single group and inseminated with sexed female semen from a single sire. At 250 days of gestation and ∼22 months of age, F1 heifers were harvested and liver samples collected. Total RNA was extracted, sequenced, and reads aligned using STAR after quality control. Differential expression analyses were performed in R (v4.4.2) using the DESeq2 package, and over-representation of KEGG pathways and biological processes was carried out using ShinyGO v.0.76. A total of 13,990 genes were tested, of which 486 were differentially expressed (P ≤ 0.05; |log2FC| ≥ 0.5), including 241 upregulated and 245 downregulated in the VTM group. Upregulated genes by maternal VTM supplementation included RPL23, SOX4, PTGS2, NDUFC1, UQCRH, and RPS28, associated with pathways including ribosome and processes like cell proliferation and oxidative phosphorylation. Downregulated genes, including EIF2AK2, ESR1, SLC7A1, and PIK3CB, were associated with processes related to regulation of cell population proliferation and organonitrogen compound biosynthetic process. These results indicate that VTM supplementation in F0 dams may induce persistent changes in hepatic gene expression in the offspring, with potential metabolic implications during critical physiological stages, such as during gestation in F1 heifers. (Supported by USDA 2022-67016-36479)