Adipose tissue not only affects meat quality and animal productivity, but also participates in
inflammation and immunity. Ningxiang pig is famous for their excellent meat quality,
disease resistance and tolerance of
roughage. It is not yet well known how
proteins in adipose tissue is dynamically regulated during the growth of Ningxiang pig. This report studies the proteomic changes in subcutaneous adipose tissue in Ningxiang pigs to gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of fat development during the growth period. By TMT-labeled quantitative proteomic analysis of subcutaneous adipose tissue of 9 purebred Ningxiang pigs of different ages, we identified 2533 unique
proteins and 716 differentially abundant
proteins (
DAPs), of which more than half of the
DAPs were concentrated in the 90d-210d period. Retrograde
endocannabinoid signaling was only significantly enriched in
DAPs of N90d vs N30d,
Alcoholism and
Graft-versus-host disease were only significantly enriched in
DAPs of N210d vs N90d.
Proteins related to
dilated cardiomyopathy was found to be an important pathway in fat development and lipid metabolism. A variety of novel
DAPs involved in maintaining mitochondrial function and cell viability, such as NDUFS6, SDHB, COX5A, ATP5D and TNNT1, which play a role in controlling the prediction networks, may indirectly regulate the development and functional maintenance of adipocytes. SIGNIFICANCE: These age-dependent
DAPs discovered in this study may help expand the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the development, function maintenance and transformation of adipose tissue in Ningxiang pig for developing new strategies for improving meat quality and pig breeding in the future.