Copyedited by: KD Journal of Animal Science, 2020, 1–18 doi:10.1093/jas/skz368 Advance Access publication December 6, 2019 Received: 31 August 2019 and Accepted: 5 December 2019 Fetal Programming Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jas/article-abstract/98/1/skz368/5661111 by Texas A&M College Station user on 30 April 2020 Fetal Programming Influence of prenatal transportation stress-induced differential DNA methylation on the physiological control of behavior and stress response in suckling Brahman bull calves Brittni P. Littlejohn,†,‡,1 Deborah M. Price,†,‡ Don A. Neuendorff,† Jeffery A. Carroll,|| Rhonda C. Vann,$ Penny K. Riggs,‡ David G. Riley,‡ Charles R. Long,†,‡ Ronald D. Randel,† and Thomas H. Welsh, Jr.‡,2 †Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center, Overton, TX 75684, ‡Department of Animal Science, Texas A&M University, and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, College Station, TX 77843, ||USDA-ARS, Livestock Issues Research Unit, Lubbock, TX 79403, $Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State University, Raymond, MS 39154 1Current address: Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762 2Corresponding author:
[email protected] Abstract The objective of this experiment was to examine potential differential methylation of DNA as a mechanism for altered behavioral and stress responses in prenatally stressed (PNS) compared with nonprenatally stressed (Control) young bull calves. Mature Brahman cows (n = 48) were transported for 2-h periods at 60 ± 5, 80 ± 5, 100 ± 5, 120 ± 5, and 140 ± 5 d of gestation (Transported group) or maintained as nontransported Controls (n = 48). From the offspring born to Transported and Control cows, a subset of 28-d-old intact bulls (n = 7 PNS; n = 7 Control) were evaluated for methylation of DNA of behavior and stress response–associated genes.