Fetal programming is associated with candidate lipidomic signatures in skeletal muscle of Nellore beef cattle offspring

Abstract

Maternal nutrition during gestation can shape offspring skeletal muscle development, but its long-term effects on the beef cattle muscle lipidome remain poorly understood. This study investigated whether gestational protein-energy supplementation is associated with lipidomic signatures in the Longissimus thoracis muscle of Nellore offspring. Targeted multiple reaction monitoring-based lipidomics was applied to 14 samples, including 7 non-programmed (NP) and 7 fetal-programmed (FP) animals. Of 3,437 multiple reaction monitoring transitions evaluated, 408 lipid features were retained for downstream analyses. Lipidomic profiles were explored using multivariate analyses, univariate filtering, pathway enrichment, triacylglycerol chain-length and unsaturation summaries, and correlations with meat-quality traits. Gestational supplementation was associated with subtle but detectable shifts in the skeletal muscle lipidome. Ten lipid features met nominal p-value and fold-change criteria, although none remained significant after false-discovery-rate correction. These features involved membrane-related and bioactive lipid classes, including phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, sphingomyelins, ceramides, diacylglycerols, phosphatidylglycerols, and selected triacylglycerols, whereas triacylglycerol chain-length and unsaturation distributions remained stable. Overall, this study highlights lipidomics as a promising approach to identify candidate molecular signatures of fetal programming in beef cattle, requiring validation in larger cohorts.