Study of swine metabolism in a cell line model

Understanding swine metabolism is important to the pork industry, for the improvement of feed efficiency and meat quality, in addition to animal wellbeing. We have recently discovered two stress genes (Luman/CREB3 and LRF/CREBRF) that regulate animal responses to stress. Mutation of these Luman or LRF gene resulted in animals that are more tolerate to stress, in the meantime being lean with very low abdominal fat. Here we propose to further our study on how these genes regulate metabolism using a swine liver cell system. We believe that the proposed research will cast light on the underlying mechanism of why our mutant mice are lean, at the molecular and cellular level. The outcomes of this research will not only benefit the pork industry by increasing production efficiency and enhancing animal welfare, but may also help understand and treat various metabolic diseases of humans.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ray Lu

Student:

Briana Locke;Brandon Smith

Partner:

Alliance Genetics Canada

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Guelph