OSCR

Differences in meat and wool quality and gastrointestinal/hypothalamic functions in Dexin fine-wool meat sheep with divergent residual feed intake.

Overview

Authors: Ziting Wang1,2,3, Xu Wang4, Qiyuan Deng1, Yong Tuo1, Yan Ma1, Linjiao He1, Zhijun Zhang1,3, Wenxin Zheng4
  1. Feed Research Institute of Xinjiang Academy of Animal Husbandry Sciences, Urumqi, 830011 China
  2. College of Juncao and Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, No. 15, Shangxiadian Road, Cangshan District, Fuzhou, 350002 Fujian Province China
  3. Xinjiang Feed Biotechnology Key Laboratory, Urumqi, 830011 China
  4. Xinjiang Academy of Animal Husbandry Sciences, Urumqi, 830011 China
Journal: BMC veterinary research, volume 22, issue 1, article 464
Dates: received 24 September 2025; accepted 12 May 2026; published online 4 June 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0 · PMID 42237163 · PMCID PMC13465673 · OpenAlex W7163426149
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: other (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Keywords: RFI, Hypothalamus-Gastrointestinal, Lnc-RNA, mRNA, Livestock quality
MeSH: Eating*, Gastrointestinal Tract*, Hypothalamus*, Meat*, Animals, Rumen, Sheep (* major topic)
Topic: Regulation of Appetite and Obesity (Endocrine and Autonomic Systems, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: National Key R&D Program Project (2021YFD1300905); Forage feed standardized processing technology integration (2022B02003-4); "Tianshan Talents" Program - Leading Talents (Team) in Scientific and Technological Innovation (20221100619); National Key R&D Program Project (2021YFD1300905); The Autonomous Region's Breeding and Promotion Plan for Sheep Breeds Used Both for Meat and Wool (2022XJRMY-07); "Tianshan Talents" Program - Leading Talents (Team) in Scientific and Technological Innovation (20221100619)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 41 references in the paper

Abstract

Residual feed intake (RFI) is an important indicator for measuring feed efficiency and can be used to screen sheep populations with low feed consumption and excellent growth performance. Its mechanism is closely related to the hypothalamus, which regulates animal feeding behavior, as well as the rumen and duodenum, which are responsible for the main digestive and absorptive functions. In theory, the hypothalamus-gastrointestinal axis is one of the key pathways affecting feed efficiency in ruminants. However, existing research has focused on the gastrointestinal microbiota and lacks systematic research on the interaction mechanism and functional expression differences between the hypothalamus and the gastrointestinal axis. The results indicate that Residual Feed Intake (RFI) significantly influences livestock quality in sheep. Regarding meat characteristics, the low-RFI (L-RFI) group exhibited a significantly higher cooking percentage in the longissimus dorsi muscle compared to the high-RFI (H-RFI) group. In terms of wool quality, L-RFI sheep were characterized by finer fiber diameters, shorter staple lengths, and an increased straight fiber rate. Mechanistically, RFI affected glutamatergic synapses, calcium signaling, and neurotransmitter receptor activity in the hypothalamus. Transcriptomic profiling further revealed that high-intake sheep showed upregulated lysosomal function, ATP metabolism, and cell cycle pathways in the rumen. Similarly, the duodenum of H-RFI sheep displayed marked activation of DNA replication and B-cell receptor signaling, alongside enhanced cholesterol transport and epithelial cell proliferation. In summary, this study, through a multi-dimensional analysis from the hypothalamus to the gastrointestinal tract, systematically reveals the physiological and molecular basis of RFI’s influence on sheep feed efficiency, providing a new research paradigm for further exploring the role of the brain-gut axis in the regulation of animal feed efficiency.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

The data has been uploaded to the Zenodo database under 10.5281/zenodo.19500349.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 8 authors, 5 keywords, 7 MeSH terms, 6 funders, 35 references.

Cite

This paper

Wang, Z., Wang, X., Deng, Q., Tuo, Y., Ma, Y., He, L., Zhang, Z., & Zheng, W. (2026). Differences in meat and wool quality and gastrointestinal/hypothalamic functions in Dexin fine-wool meat sheep with divergent residual feed intake. BMC veterinary research, 22(1), 464. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0

BibTeX

@article{wang2026differences,
author = {Wang, Ziting and Wang, Xu and Deng, Qiyuan and Tuo, Yong and Ma, Yan and He, Linjiao and Zhang, Zhijun and Zheng, Wenxin},
title = {{Differences in meat and wool quality and gastrointestinal/hypothalamic functions in Dexin fine-wool meat sheep with divergent residual feed intake}},
journal = {BMC veterinary research},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
volume = {22},
number = {1},
pages = {464},
publisher = {BMC},
issn = {1746-6148},
doi = {10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0},
pmid = {42237163},
pmcid = {PMC13465673}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Wang, Ziting
AU - Wang, Xu
AU - Deng, Qiyuan
AU - Tuo, Yong
AU - Ma, Yan
AU - He, Linjiao
AU - Zhang, Zhijun
AU - Zheng, Wenxin
TI - Differences in meat and wool quality and gastrointestinal/hypothalamic functions in Dexin fine-wool meat sheep with divergent residual feed intake
T2 - BMC veterinary research
J2 - BMC Vet Res
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/04
VL - 22
IS - 1
SP - 464
SN - 1746-6148
PB - BMC
DO - 10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

{
"id": "10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0",
"type": "article-journal",
"title": "Differences in meat and wool quality and gastrointestinal/hypothalamic functions in Dexin fine-wool meat sheep with divergent residual feed intake",
"container-title": "BMC veterinary research",
"author": [
{
"family": "Wang",
"given": "Ziting"
},
{
"family": "Wang",
"given": "Xu"
},
{
"family": "Deng",
"given": "Qiyuan"
},
{
"family": "Tuo",
"given": "Yong"
},
{
"family": "Ma",
"given": "Yan"
},
{
"family": "He",
"given": "Linjiao"
},
{
"family": "Zhang",
"given": "Zhijun"
},
{
"family": "Zheng",
"given": "Wenxin"
}
],
"container-title-short": "BMC Vet Res",
"volume": "22",
"issue": "1",
"page": "464",
"DOI": "10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0",
"PMID": "42237163",
"PMCID": "PMC13465673",
"ISSN": "1746-6148",
"publisher": "BMC",
"URL": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-026-05562-0",
"language": "en",
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2026,
6,
4
]
]
}
}

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1007/s44192-026-00521-5 [code]
Associations between anterior hypothalamic subunits and ADHD and autistic traits revealed by deep learning MRI segmentation.
Journal: Discover mental health
In common: 1 reference
[2] doi:10.1186/s12915-026-02717-1
Odorant receptor structures predict the major female sex pheromone component in a moth.
Journal: BMC biology
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[3] doi:10.1093/gbe/evag222 [code]
Genomic Signatures of Selection Are Enriched in Differentially Expressed Genes in Sticklebacks Adapting to Contrasting Environments.
Journal: Genome biology and evolution
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[4] doi:10.1096/fj.202603109r
Stressor- and Tissue-Specific Regulation of the Corticotropin-Releasing Factor System Across Epithelial Tissues in Rainbow Trout.
Journal: FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[5] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003955 [code]
Beat- and Side-family cell-surface molecules are expressed combinatorially in the partner neurons of the olfactory circuit in Drosophila.
Journal: PLoS biology
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[6] doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0356781
Bovine serum albumin sensitizes the mouse brain to lipopolysaccharides.
Journal: PloS one
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[7] doi:10.1523/eneuro.0121-26.2026 [code]
Hippocampal Gene Expression in Zebra Finches Reveals Sex- and Subregion-Specific Topographies.
Journal: eNeuro
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[8] doi:10.1186/s12711-026-01078-1 [code]
Functional genomic dissection and prediction of body size traits in pigs.
Journal: Genetics, selection, evolution : GSE
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[9] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76682-2 [code]
Odorant receptor coexpression and multi-expression in the dengue mosquito.
Journal: Nature communications
In common: other, cellular / molecular
[10] doi:10.3390/biom16081187
Genetic Diversity and Runs of Homozygosity in Three Masu Salmon (<i>Oncorhynchus masou</i>) Populations Based on Whole-Genome Resequencing Data.
Journal: Biomolecules
In common: other, cellular / molecular

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Sign in with ORCID to claim this paper as one of its authors, correct its record or validate its tracing map: when the paper's metadata lists your ORCID iD, you are recognized at once. Maintainers of its code: sign in with GitHub, then claim the repository on your account page.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion, reproductions, activity

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.