Maternal undernutrition during gestation induces enduring genome-wide DNA methylation alterations in the skeletal muscle of postnatal beef cattle.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Animal experimental study with no human clinical data.
PubMed 42373703 · doi:10.1038/s41598-026-57678-w
What was done
Wagyu cows were assigned to either a nutritionally adequate control diet (120% of requirements, n = 4) or a nutritionally restricted diet (60% of requirements, n = 4) from day 35 of gestation until calving. After birth, all calves received identical diets. At 300 days of age, biopsies of the longissimus thoracis muscle were collected from the offspring, and genome-wide DNA methylation was profiled using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing.
What was found
Compared to control offspring, muscle from nutritionally restricted offspring had 7,076 hypomethylated and 6,104 hypermethylated regions (methylation difference > 20%, Q < 0.05). Promoter and 5' untranslated regions showed the highest susceptibility to alterations, with 0.96% and 1.09% hypomethylation, respectively. Integrative analysis of DNA methylation and gene expression identified 7 candidate epigenetically regulated genes, including NEDD4 and SLC30A1, despite more than 13,000 differentially methylated regions persisting postnatally.
Why it matters
This study demonstrates that maternal undernutrition during gestation causes persistent epigenetic modifications in bovine skeletal muscle well into postnatal life. These findings help explain biological pathways that could influence long-term muscle growth, metabolic efficiency, and meat quality in livestock.
Limits
The sample size was very small (n = 4 per group), limited to a single cattle breed (Wagyu), and phenotypic performance or meat quality endpoints were not directly reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Animal studies show maternal protein restriction during pregnancy triggers epigenetic changes that program offspring to have smaller muscle mass throughout life.