Transcriptome Analysis of the Liver and Muscle Tissues of Dorper and Small-Tailed Han Sheep

Hongyang Peng; Mingyue Hu; Zhengxi Liu; Weining Lai; Lulu Shi; Zhongli Zhao; Huihai Ma; Yumei Li; Shouqing Yan

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.868717

Transcriptome Analysis of the Liver and Muscle Tissues of Dorper and Small-Tailed Han Sheep

Front Genet. 2022 Apr 11:13:868717. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.868717. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hongyang Peng¹, Mingyue Hu¹, Zhengxi Liu¹, Weining Lai¹, Lulu Shi¹, Zhongli Zhao², Huihai Ma², Yumei Li¹, Shouqing Yan¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gongzhuling, China.

Abstract

It is well known that Dorper (DP) is a full-bodied, fast-growing and high dressing percentage breed, while the production performance of Small-tailed Han sheep (STH) is not so excellent, in contrast to DP. Therefore, in this study, a comparative transcriptomic analysis of liver and muscle tissues from DP and STH breeds was carried out to find differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that affect their growth and meat quality traits. The results showed that the total number of DEGs was 2,188 in the two tissues. There were 950, 160 up-regulated and 1,007, 71 down-regulated genes in the liver and muscle, respectively. Several DEGs such as TGFB1, TGFB3, FABP3, LPL may be associated with growth and development in DP. Also, several GO terms were found to be associated with muscle growth and development, such as developmental growth (GO:0048589), and myofibril (GO:0030016). Further validation of eight genes (6 up-regulated, and 2 down-regulated) was performed using quantitative RT-PCR. These findings will provide valuable information for studying growth and development as well as meat quality traits in sheep.

Keywords: RNA-seq; dorper; growth; mutton; small-tailed Han sheep.