Identification of differentially expressed genes in the longissimus dorsi muscle of Luchuan and Duroc pigs by transcriptome sequencing

Abstract

The Duroc pig originated in the United States and is a typical lean meat pig. The breed grows fast and the body size is large, but the meat quality is poor. The Luchuan pig is one of the eight local excellent breeds in China; it has tender meat but a small size. To study the factors that determine growth, we selected the longissimus dorsi muscle of Luchuan and Duroc pigs for transcriptome sequencing. The results of transcriptome showed that 3682 genes were differentially expressed (DEGs) in the longissimus dorsi muscle of Duroc and Luchuan pigs. We screened out forty genes related to muscle development and selected the Myosin light chain-2 (MYL2) gene to perform preliminary research. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment of biological functions and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that most of the forty gene were mainly involved in the Akt/FoxO signaling pathway, Fatty acid metabolism, Arachidonic acid metabolism and Glycine, serine and threonine metabolism. Such pathways contributed to skeletal muscle growth, fatty acid metabolism and intramuscular fat deposition. These results provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the formation of skeletal muscle and provide candidate genes to improve growth traits and meat quality traits, as well as contribute to improving the growth and development traits of pigs through molecular breeding.