BioProject

Cows were selected from two groups of 12 cows enrolled in a large experiment to assess the effects of ad libitum or restricted intake of moderate-energy diets during the entire dry period on pre-partum metabolism and post-partum metabolism and performance. More...

Cows were selected from two groups of 12 cows enrolled in a large experiment to assess the effects of ad libitum or restricted intake of moderate-energy diets during the entire dry period on pre-partum metabolism and post-partum metabolism and performance. A corn silage-based diet (26% of diet dry matter) providing 1.59 Mcal/kg during the far-off dry period (first 5 wk of an 8-wk dry period) or providing 1.61 Mcal/kg during the close-up dry period (last 3 wk of the dry period) was fed for ad libitum or restricted intake. Four multiparous Holstein cows were randomly selected from the ad libitum and restricted intake groups. Keywords: time course, ad libitum or restricted feeding prepartum Overall design: A 7,872-element cDNA microarray spotted in duplicate on amino silane-coated glass slides (Everts et al. 2005, Vet. Immunol. Immunopathol. 105:235-245) was used for transcript profiling. Annotation was based on similarity searches (January, 2005) using sequential BLASTN and TBLASTX against human and mouse UniGene databases and the human genome. The 7,872-element array represents more than 6,300 unique genes. Gene Ontology (GO) terms were parsed from LocusLink to functionally annotate cDNA sequences. RNA (20 ug) from liver tissue and a reference standard derived from a mixture of tissues not including liver were used to make aminoallyl-labeled cDNA followed by incorporation of Cy3-ester and Cy5-ester (Amersham, Piscataway, NJ). Each experimental sample was co-hybridized with the reference standard, which allowed the treatment of fluorescence ratios as measurements of relative expression across all samples and time points. Probes were hybridized to the array for 2 days at 42 C. All samples were hybridized to duplicate slides for a total of 4 spots per cDNA element. A total of 106 microarrays were run to complete the experiment. Slides were scanned for both dye channels with a Scanarray 4000 (GSI-Lumonics, Billerica, MA) dual-laser confocal scanner and images were processed using GenePix 4.0 (Axon Instruments, Inc., CA). Less...