Switches in transcriptome functions during seven skeletal muscle development stages from fetus to kid in Capra hircus

Abstract

Skeletal muscle accounts for about 40% of mammalian body weight, the development of which is a dynamic, complex and precisely regulated process that is critical for meat production. We here described the transcriptome expression profile in 21 goat samples collected at 7 growth stages from fetus to kid, including fetal 45 (F45), 65 (F65), 90 (F90), 120 (F120), and 135 (F135) days, and birth 1 (B1) day and 90 (B90) days kids. Paraffin sections combined with RNA-seq data of the 7 stages divided the transcriptomic functions of skeletal muscle into 4 states: before F90, F120, F135 and B1, and B90. And the dynamic expression of all 4 793 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was identified. Furthermore, DEGs were clustered by weighted gene correlation network analysis into 4 modules (turquoise, grey, blue and brown) that corresponded to these 4 states. Functional and pathway analysis indicated that the active genes in the stages before F90 (turquoise) were closely related to skeletal muscle proliferation. The DEGs in the F120-related module (grey) were found to participate in the regulation of skeletal muscle structure and skeletal muscle development by regulating tRNA. The brown module (F135 and B1) regulated fatty acid biological processes to maintain the normal development of muscle cells. The DEGs of B90 high correlation module (blue) were involved the strengthening and power of skeletal muscle through the regulation of actin filaments and tropomyosin. Our current data thus revealed the internal functional conversion of the goat skeletal muscle in the growth from fetus to kid. The results provided a theoretical basis for analyzing the involvement of mRNA in skeletal muscle development.

Keywords

• mRNA
• goat (Capra hircus)
• transcriptome
• skeletal muscle