畜禽表观遗传学主要研究领域及研究进展

The Main Research Fields and Progress of Livestock Epigenetics

表观遗传学(epigenetics)是指DNA序列未发生变化,而基因表达却发生了可遗传的变化。近年来,表观遗传学在家养动物研究领域发展极为迅速,主要畜种涉及鸡、猪、牛、羊等,并形成一门新兴学科——畜禽表观遗传学(livestock epigenetics)。畜禽表观遗传学主要针对各种表观遗传修饰,包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰及非编码RNA等,研究家养动物的生长发育、疾病抗性、繁殖、经济等性状的表达调控基础。作者综述和分析了畜禽表观遗传学的主要研究领域及现状,进一步对其发展趋势进行了展望,有助于全面了解畜禽复杂性状形成的分子基础,这也极大开拓了研究和改善畜禽各类经济性状的思路与策略。

Epigenetics means that there are heritable changes in gene expression while without a change in DNA sequence.In the recent years,the researches of epigenetic regulation on livestock field have developed rapidly.The main studied domestic animals include poultry,swine,bovine,sheep and goat,thus a new subject——livestock epigenetics is developing.Livestock epigenetics mainly uses various kinds of epigenetic modifications involved in DNA methylation,histone modification and non-coding RNAs regulation to study livestock growth and development,disease resistance,reproduction and economic traits,and so on.Here,we reviewed the mainly research fields and progress on livestock epigenetics,the trends of livestock epigenetics studies were also discussed to comprehensively understand the molecular basis of the complex traits formation of livestock and poultry,which greatly broadened the research and strategy to improve the economic traits of livestock and poultry.