Fig. 6: Coordinated hepatic expression of LC-PUFA-phospholipid biosynthetic genes in response to Dlk1-manipulation in pregnancy.

A–D Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis of LC-PUFA-phospholipid biosynthetic genes in pregnant mice (15.5 dpc) in response to Dlk1 manipulation. Genotype-matched replicate comparisons were performed to assess the effect of maternal-derived DLK1 protein or fetal-derived DLK1 protein on the expression of fatty acid import and synthetic pathway genes (A), Kennedy pathway genes (B), Land’s Cycle genes (C) and lipid export pathway genes (D). Gene symbols are defined in Supplementary Data Table S10. RT-qPCR data was normalised to housekeeping gene expression (Tuba1 and Hprt) and is shown as mean relative expression ± SD. Gene expression was compared between all four experimental groups by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple-comparison post-hoc test (*p-value < 0.05; **p-value < 0.01; *** p-value < 0.001). p-values for Fads1: 7vs4 = 0.0002, 8vs5 = 0.0226; Fads2: 7vs4 = 0.0008, 8vs5 = 0.0041; Gpam: 7vs4 = 0.0262; Agpat2: 7vs4 = 0.0292; Pcyt1a: 7vs4 = 0.0348, 8vs5 = 0.0423; Pcyt2: 7vs4 = 0.019; Pnpla3: 7vs4 = 0.0008, 8vs5 = 0.0363, Mttp: 7vs4 = 0.0474, 8vs5 = 0.0023. n = 7 (group 4; exceptions: n = 5 for Pla2g4a), n = 7 (group 5; exceptions: n = 6 for Pla2g4a; n = 5 for Lpcat2), n = 8 (group 7; exceptions: n = 7 for Elovl2), n = 7 (group 8; exceptions: n = 5 for Pcyt1a); mice per group. E, F Two-tailed multiple Pearson’s correlations between DLK1-responsive genes in pregnant (groups 2 and 5; E) and virgin (groups 1 and 3; F) livers. p-values in shaded red boxes indicate statistically significant correlations (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value threshold = 0.0045). n = 8 (group 1; exceptions: n = 7 for Fads2, Pcyt1a, Mttp, Pnpla3), n = 7 (group 2), n = 8 (group 3; exceptions: n = 7 for Agpat2), n = 8 (group 5; exceptions: n = 7 for Fads2); mice per group. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.