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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Diet, Genomics and Immunology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #388188
Title: Fruit and vegetable supplemented diet modulates the pig transcriptome and microbiome after a two-week feeding intervention

Author
item Solano-Aguilar, Gloria
item Lakshman, Sukla
item Shao, Jonathan
item Chen, Celine
item Beshah, Ethiopia
item Dawson, Harry
item Vinyard, Bryan
item Schroeder, Steven - Steve
item Jang, Saebyeol
item Molokin, Aleksey
item Urban, Joseph

Submitted to: Nutrients
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2021
Publication Date: 12/2/2021
Citation: Solano-Aguilar, G.I., Lakshman, S., Shao, J.Y., Chen, C.T., Beshah, E., Dawson, H.D., Vinyard, B.T., Schroeder, S.G., Jang, S., Molokin, A., Urban Jr., J.F. 2021. Fruit and vegetable supplemented diet modulates the pig transcriptome and microbiome after a two-week feeding intervention. Nutrients. 13:4350. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13124350.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13124350

Interpretive Summary: This study evaluates the effect of feeding a fruit and vegetable (FV) supplemented diet on the abundance and composition of fecal microbiome and its impact on whole blood cell (WBC) gene expression. Nine six-week-old pigs were fed a pig grower diet alone or supplemented with lyophilized FV equivalent to half the daily recommended amount prescribed for humans by the Dietary guideline for Americans (DGA) for two weeks. Changes in WBC gene expression were evaluated by RNA sequencing. Isolated DNA from fecal microbiome was used for 16S rDNA taxonomic analysis and prediction of metabolomic function. Feeding a FV-supplemented diet to pigs induced differential expression of several genes associated with an increase in B-cell development and differentiation and the regulation of other immunological functions including cellular movement, inflammatory response and cell to cell signalling. Analysis of relative bacterial abundance in the fecal microbiome showed differential increases in genera from Lachnospiraceae, and Ruminococcaceae families within the order Clostridiales and Erysipelotrichaceae family with a predicted reduction in rgpE-glucosyltransferase, a protein associated with the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis in pigs fed the FV-supplemented diet. These results suggested that feeding a FV supplemented diet for two weeks modulated markers of cellular inflammatory and immune function in the WBC transcriptome and the composition of the intestinal microbiome by increasing the abundance of bacterial taxa that have been associated with improved intestinal health.

Technical Abstract: A study was conducted to determine the effect of a diet supplemented with fruits and vegetables (FV) on the host whole blood cell (WBC) transcriptome and the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome. Nine six-week-old pigs were fed a pig grower diet alone or supplemented with lyophilized FV equivalent to half the daily recommended amount prescribed for humans by the Dietary guideline for Americans (DGA) for two weeks. Host transcriptome changes in the WBC were evaluated by RNA sequencing. Isolated DNA from fecal microbiome was used for 16S rDNA taxonomic analysis and prediction of metabolomic function. Feeding a FV-supplemented diet to pigs induced differential expression of several genes associated with an increase in B-cell development and differentiation and the regulation of cellular movement, inflammatory response and cell to cell signalling. Relative bacterial abundance in the fecal microbiome and Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) showed differential increases in genera from Lachnospiraceae, and Ruminococcaceae families within the order Clostridiales and Erysipelotrichaceae family with a predicted reduction in rgpE-glucosyltransferase protein associated with the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis in pigs fed the FV-supplemented diet. These results suggested that feeding a FV supplemented diet for two weeks modulated markers of cellular inflammatory and immune function in the WBC transcriptome and the composition of the intestinal microbiome by increasing the abundance of bacterial taxa that have been associated with improved intestinal health.