Abstract
Carcass weight, meat quality and muscle components are important traits economically and they underpin most of the commercial return to goat producers. In this study, the Longissimus dorsi muscle tissues were collected from five Liaoning cashmere (LC) goats and five Ziwuling black (ZB) goats with phenotypic difference in carcass weight, some meat quality traits and muscle components. The histological quantitative of collagen fibers and the transcriptome profiles in the Longissimus dorsi muscle tissues were investigated using Masson-trichrome staining and RNA-Seq, respectively. The percentage of total collagen fibers in the Longissimus dorsi muscle tissues from ZB goats was less than those from LC goats, suggesting that these ZB goats had more tender meat. An average of 15,919 and 15,582 genes were found to be expressed in Longissimus dorsi muscle tissues from LC and ZB goats, respectively. Compared to LC goats, the expression levels of 78 genes were up-regulated in ZB goats, while 133 genes were down-regulated. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in GO terms related to the muscle growth and development and the deposition of intramuscular fat and lipid metabolism, hippo signaling pathway and Jak-STAT signaling pathway. The results provide an improved understanding of the genetic mechanisms regulating meat production performance in goats, and will help us improve the accuracy of selection for meat traits in goats using marker-assisted selection based on these differentially expressed genes obtained.
Highlights
As an important agricultural animal, domestic goat (Capra hircus) plays key roles in meat, fiber and milk production
Comparing to LC goats, ZB goats investigated in the study had lower muscle shear force values that result in more tender meat
We identify differentially expressed genes with a fold change > 2.0 and false discovery rate (FDR) value < 0.05 being set as threshold
Summary
As an important agricultural animal, domestic goat (Capra hircus) plays key roles in meat, fiber and milk production. It is well known that meat yield and quality are controlled by both genetic and environment factors, so an improved understanding of molecular mechanisms that regulate skeletal muscle growth and development offers an opportunity to improve meat production and quality. In this respect, some important functional genes and signaling pathways related to meat yield and quality were found. RNA-Seq has been widely used to analyze genetic mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle growth and development in pigs (Óvilo et al, 2014; Xu et al, 2018), cattle (Silva-Vignato et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2018), and sheep (Sun et al, 2016; Cheng et al, 2020)
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