Effect of enhanced early life nutrition on the bull calf testes transcriptome

This study evaluated the effect of enhanced dietary intake during the early life period on testes transcriptome in bull calves. Between 2-12 weeks of age bull alves were offered either a high (HI; n=15) or moderate (MOD; n=15) plane of nutrition, with diets designed to evoke growth rates of 1.0 and 0.5 kg/day, respectively. At 12 wk of age, testes parenchyma tissue samples were harvested from all calves and subsequently subjected to mRNAseq. Subsequent bioinformatics analyses revealed differential expression of genes invovled in cellular adhesion and immune function. 30 testes RNA samples were analysed for this study, comprising. 15 samples were derived from bull calves fed the High plane of nutrition (HI, n=15) and 15 samples derived from the calves fed the Moderate plane of nutrition (MOD, n=15). Calves on the High-plane of nutrition received 1.5 kg of milk replacer (10 liters) per day and ad libitum concentrates. The MOD plane of nutrition group received 0.5 kg of milk replacer (4 litres) per day and 0.5 kg of concentrates. All tissue samples were collected at the same time-point (12 weeks of age).