Animal and Food Sciences | Faculty
Serguei P. Golovan, Ph.D.
- B.S. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. 1994 Molecular Biology
- Ph.D. Department of Genetics, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia 2001 Molecular biology
- Recent epidemic in Asia and Canada have demonstrated that avian influenza (bird flu) not only results in significant monetary loss for the poultry industry, but also represents a serious risk of creating human pandemic. Together with Dr. E. Nagy (Pathobiology) we have been able to achieve inhibition of avian influenza virus up to 1000 fold in chicken CH-SAH cells and up to 106 fold in MDCK cells using shRNA constructs targeting highly conservative sites in NP and PA mRNAs of avian influenza. To improve efficiency in avian cells we have designed new microRNA based constructs with chicken promoters. Eventual goal is production of prophylactic RNAi based drugs which can be administered to poultry in aerosol form or in drinking water to provide transient protection during an outbreak. Long term goal is to produce poultry completely resistant to avian influenza infection by introducing shRNA construct into chicken genome expressed with constitutive or virus inducible promoters. Ability to manipulate gene expression with RNAi will also increase popularity of chicken as a model for developmental studies.
- Focus of Advanced Foods and Materials Network funded project has been to develop the application of efficient, high-throughput molecular profiling techniques, including analysis of the transcriptome (microarray) and proteome (iTRAQ) and its integration with traditional composition analysis to create a multidimensional analysis of transgenic plants (Dr. M. Fortin, PI) and animals (C.W. Forsberg, PI). Compositional analyses of 12 tissues from of 24 transgenic Enviropigs and 24 conventional pigs were used to provide baseline data for protein, fatty acids, fat, and minerals. To monitor changes in gene expression in three tissues Affymetrix porcine chip was used, while changes in proteome of five tissues were monitored using Isotope Tagging for Relative and Absolute Quantification (iTRAQ). In collaboration with Dr. C. Elsik (Georgetown University) we have been using this data to produce a first confident porcine proteome of around 3500 proteins identified with at least 2 peptides across five tissues. This protein index will provide across species comparisons for Human Proteome Project (HUPO). For example we compared porcine liver proteins with mouse and human liver proteomes and identified that almost 20% of proteins might have diverged during evolution either in protein sequence or in regulation. Also our results demonstrate that around 6% of endogenous proteins and 8% of transcripts were affected by transgene expression. Differentially expressed genes are currently mapped to known metabolic/signalling pathways and Gene Ontology categories using public (DAVID, GeneMapp, GoMiner) and commercial (MetaCore, PathwayCentre) software. We submitted this information to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of comprehensive evaluation of our transgenic Enviropigs. The unique features of this information is that the first time data on a transgenic food animal other than fish has been submitted to a regulatory agency and therefore provides a model for transgenic animals to follow.
- My previous research culminated in the production of first transgenic animals designed to solve an environmental problem. The phytase transgenic pigs, “Enviropigs”, are healthy and constitutively produce high levels of AppA phytase in saliva. These pigs do not require phosphate supplements for normal growth as a result of an essentially complete digestion of plant phytate in their feed. This relieves the requirement for inorganic phosphate supplements ($ 1.30/pig), reduces fecal phosphorus by up to 60%, and decreases the land use for manure spreading by 33%. The significance of these research results is the development of a unique biological approach to the management of phosphorus nutrition and environmental pollution, which will lead to a more sustainable animal agriculture. Another important result of this research was to demonstrate a positive side of genetic engineering by demonstrating its use in solving environmental problems faced by the world.
- Winner of D.G. Ingram Award of Sigma Xi (2003).
- Graduate Scholarship, University of Guelph (1998).
Abrahamyan A., E. Nagy, S.P. Golovan. Human H1 promoter expressed short hairpin RNAs
(shRNA)suppress avian influenza virus replication in chicken CH‐SAH and canine MDCK cells. Antiviral
Research. 2009. Accepted PMID: 19737578.
H. Hakimov, C. Verschoor, S. Walters, M. Gadish, C. Elsik, D.K.Y. Chiu, C.W. Forsberg and S.P. Golovan.
Application of iTRAQ to catalogue the skeletal muscle proteome in pigs and assessment of muscle
proteins affected by sex and diet dephytinization. Proteomics, 2009.Aug;9(16):4000‐16.
M. Gadish, D. Chiu, C.W. Forsberg and S.P. Golovan. A Granular Hierarchical Approach to Biophysical and Biochemical Evaluations of Transgenic Modifications. IJCBS 2009 : The International Joint Conference on Bioinformatics, Systems Biology and Intelligent Computing. 2009. Peer reviewed. Accepted.
Golovan,S.P., Hakimov,H.A., Verschoor,C.P., Walters,S., Gadish,M., Elsik,C., Schenkel,F., Chiu,D.K.Y., and Forsberg,C.W. (2008). Analysis of Sus scrofa liver proteome and identification of proteins differentially expressed between genders, and conventional and genetically enhanced lines. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology D-Genomics & Proteomics 3, 234-242.
Colley,A., Buhr,M., and Golovan,S.P. (2008). Single bovine sperm sex typing by amelogenin nested PCR. Theriogenology 70, 978-983.
Stewart,C.K., Li,J., and Golovan,S.P. (2008). Adverse effects induced by short hairpin RNA expression in porcine fetal fibroblasts. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 370, 113-117.
Kang,J.H., Hakimov,H., Ruiz,A., Friendship,R.M., Buhr,M., and Golovan,S.P. (2008). The negative effects of exogenous DNA binding on porcine spermatozoa are caused by removal of seminal fluid. Theriogenology.
Jul 22Golovan, S., C. Verschoor, T. Wright, C. Elsik, S. Walters, J.P. Phillips, J. Kelly, C. Forsberg, High throughput Omics-based Analytical Tools for Evaluating Food Safety: Genetically Modified Meat Products and other Novel Foods. In: Food, Health and Biotechnology: Consumer and Social Issues in Canada’s New Food and Health Product Industries. Edited by N.M. Ries and J.J. Shelley. University of Victoria, B.C. 2007. 52 p. ISBN: 978-1-55058-355-7.
Murray,D., Meidinger,R.G., Golovan,S.P., Phillips,J.P., O'Halloran,I.P., Fan,M.Z., Hacker,R.R., and Forsberg,C.W. (2007). Transgene and mitochondrial DNA are indicators of efficient composting of transgenic pig carcasses. Bioresource Technology 98, 1795-1804.
C. W. Forsberg, S.P. Golovan, A. Ajakaiye, J. P. Phillips, R. G. Meidinger, M. Z. Fan, J. M. Kelly, and R. R. Hacker. Genetic opportunities to enhance sustainability of pork production in developing countries: a model for food animals. In: Application of gene-based technologies for improving animal production and health in developing countries, edited by H. P. S. Makkar and G. J. Viljoen, Springer / Kluwer, September 1 2005. 793 p. ISBN: 1-4020-3311-7.
Cao,H., Robinson,J.A.B., Jiang,Z., Melville,J.S., Golovan,S.P., Jones,M.W., and Gibbins,A.M.V. (2004). A high-resolution radiation hybrid map of porcine chromosome 6. Animal Genetics 35, 367-378.
Ajakaiye A., Fan M.Z., Forsberg C.W., Phillips J. P., Golovan S.P., Meidinger R.G., Archbold T. and R.R. Hacker. Digestion and absorption of calcium associated with soybean meal is completed by the end of the small intestine in the transgenic phytase EnviropigTM. The FASEB Journal; Experimental Biology. 2004. 18: (4) p 526.
Patents:
Forsberg, C.W, Golovan, S., Phillips, J. Transgenic Animals Expressing Salivary Proteins. Chinese Patent Application No. 00807871.8. Awarded in 2008.
Forsberg, C.W, Golovan, S., Phillips, J. Transgenic Animals Expressing Salivary Proteins. United States Patent Application No. 09/926, 375. Awarded in 2006.
