ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.

Sec. Livestock Genomics

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1571393

Transcriptome analysis indicates improved adipose tissue function in growing Iberian pig fed olive by-products based diets

Provisionally accepted
Patricia Palma-GranadosPatricia Palma-Granados1*Juan M García-CascoJuan M García-Casco1Ramón Peiró-PastorRamón Peiró-Pastor1Cristina ÓviloCristina Óvilo1Miguel A DelgadoMiguel A Delgado1Fabián GarcíaFabián García1Adrián López-GarcíaAdrián López-García2Elena González SánchezElena González Sánchez3María MuñozMaría Muñoz1
  • 1National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Madrid, Spain
  • 2Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 3University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

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Supplementing diets with olive by-products offers promising benefits for alleviating animal stress caused by feed restriction without compromising growth. The aim of this study was to explore the transcriptome of backfat in Iberian pigs fed experimental diets based in olive byproducts. This study involved 15 pigs, which were placed into three diet groups: a Control (C) group, a dry olive pulp (DOP) group, which was fed a compound feed elaborated with olive pulp, and a wet crude olive cake (WCOC) group, which was fed a compound feed and an olive cake silage provided ad libitum. The pigs were fed these diets for 191 days, and at a body weight of 95 kg, backfat biopsies were taken, and transcriptome analyses were performed on 5 animals per group. Compared to the C group, we identified 411 and 924 differentially expressed genes (DEG; q<0.05, |Fold Change|>1.5) for DOP and WCOC diets, respectively. In the DOP diet, functions related to polysaccharides metabolism were significantly activated, while the WCOC exhibited activated biological processes associated with apoptosis and cellular death. Both supplemented diets showed inhibition of functions involved in inflammatory and immune responses, as well as reactive oxygen species production. Furthermore, in the WCOC diet, functions related to cholesterol and lipid metabolism were repressed. In both comparisons, the ADIPOQ gene played a key role in the majority of affected functions. Our findings suggest that olive by-products may enhance adipose tissue function, which could have positive implications for animal health.

Keywords: Olive by-products, Native pigs, Iberian pigs, Transcriptome, Alternative diets, Backfat

Received: 05 Feb 2025; Accepted: 05 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Palma-Granados, García-Casco, Peiró-Pastor, Óvilo, Delgado, García, López-García, González Sánchez and Muñoz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Patricia Palma-Granados, National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Madrid, Spain

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material