Epigenetic effects of dietary zinc on the porcine ZIP4 gene expression

• Published in: Perspectives in science Vol. 3; no. 1-4; pp. 18 - 20
• Main Authors: Karweina, Diana, Martin, Lena, Pieper, Robert, Zentek, Jürgen, Brockmann, Gudrun A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier GmbH 01.02.2015
• ISSN: 2213-0209; 2213-0209
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pisc.2014.11.011

Dietary zinc supplementation has been shown to improve piglets’ health. We examined, if the gut epithelial ZIP4 transporter is affected by the zinc concentration in the diet through epigenetic modifications of the ZIP4 gene. In an experiment with 30 piglets that were fed diets with 57 (LZn ), 164 (NZn) or 2425 (HZn) mg zinc/kg feed over until four weeks, we found a reduced expression of the gene in the gut epithelium with higher zinc concentration in the feed (P ≤ 0.008). The methylation status of two CpGs in exon 2 and intron 2 were decreased in the LZn compared to the NZn group (P ≤ 0.01). The increase of the methylation at another CpG in exon 2 led to a decrease of the ZIP4 mRNA amount (P < 0.05). The fact, that only one CpG had a significant effect on ZIP4 expression, led us to the assumption that methylation changes play a minor role for the transcriptional regulation of ZIP4.