Abstract
BackgroundDrip loss is a key aspect of meat quality. Transcriptome profiles of muscle with divergent drip loss would offer important insight into the genetic factors responsible for the trait. In this study, drip loss and other meat quality traits of 28 purebred Duroc pigs were measured, muscles of these individuals were RNA sequenced, and eight individuals with extremely low and high drip loss were selected for analyzing their transcriptome differences and identifying potential candidate genes affecting drip loss.ResultsAs a result, 363 differentially expressed (DE) genes were detected in the comparative gene expression analysis, of which 239 were up-regulated and 124 were down-regulated in the low drip loss group. The DE genes were further filtered by correlation analysis between their expression and drip loss values in the 28 Duroc pigs measured and comparison of them with QTLs affecting drip loss. Consequently, of the 363 DE genes, 100 were identified as critical DE genes for drip loss. Functional analysis of these critical DE genes revealed some GO terms (extracellular matrix, cell adhesion mediated by integrin, heterotypic cell-cell adhesion), pathway (ECM-receptor interaction), and new potential candidate genes (TNC, ITGA5, ITGA11, THBS3 and CD44) which played an important role in regulating the variation of drip loss, and deserved to carry further studies to unravel their specific mechanism on drip loss.ConclusionsOur study revealed some GO terms, pathways and potential candidate genes affecting drip loss. It provides crucial information to understand the molecular mechanism of drip loss, and would be of help for improving meat quality of pigs.
Highlights
Drip loss is a key aspect of meat quality
Drip loss variation among Duroc pigs Twenty-eight Duroc pigs were used in this study
These pigs showed to have normal meat quality according to the traits of pH1, pH24 as well as L*, a* and b*, whose averages were 6.49, 5.72, 42.78, 5.72, and 10.63, respectively
Summary
Drip loss variation among Duroc pigs Twenty-eight Duroc pigs were used in this study. Expression profiling of muscle with low and high drip loss A total of 26,918 genes were detected for samples sequenced through alignment with the recent Sus scrofa genome After filtering those genes with a minimal number of reads (≤1) in more than one third of the 28 individuals, there were 18,064 genes expressed, whose normalized expression values by DESeq is presented in Additional file 3: Table S3. A total of 363 genes showed significant expression differences between the two groups, and 239 and 124 genes were up-regulated and down-regulated in the low drip loss group, respectively Their detailed information is provided in Additional file 5: Table S5.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
