ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (9): 1746-1758.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.09.003

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Castration on Gene Expression in Longissimus dorsi Muscle of Huainan Male Pig by Transcriptome Analysis

WANG Jing1, HUA Liushuai1, CHEN Junfeng1, ZHANG Jiaqing1, REN Qiaoling1, BAI Hongjie1, GUO Hongxia1, XU Zhaoxue1, XING Baosong1*, BAI Xianxiao1*, CAO Hai2   

  1. 1. Henan Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Breeding and Nutritional Regulation, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China;
    2. Henan Xing Rui Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Technology Co., LTD, Xinyang 465550, China
  • Received:2019-01-28 Online:2019-09-23 Published:2019-09-23

Abstract: The aim of this study was to detect the influence of castration on gene expression in porcine longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle and reveal the molecular regulation mechanism of castration on porcine meat quality. Six healthy Huainan male pigs were divided into 2 groups, castrated group and intact group (control group), the LD muscle was collected when their body weight achieved 130 kg (300-315 days of age). The LD muscle transcriptomes of pigs in the 2 groups were analyzed by Illumina HiSeq 2000 high-throughput RNA sequencing system. The differentially expressed genes were screened using DESeq software. All of differentially expressed genes were annotated by using GO and KEGG databases. The results showed that 83 613 018 and 83 746 508 reads were obtained from the castrated and intact groups, respectively. And the ratios of these reads to porcine reference genome (Sscrofa10.2) were 73.78% and 74.09%, respectively. Compared with intact pigs, there were 935 differentially expressed genes in LD muscle of castrated pigs, of which 503 up-regulated genes and 432 down-regulated genes (P<0.05 and|log2(Fold Change)|>0.8). The top up-and down-regulated differentially expressed genes associated with muscle development were collagen type XI alpha 1 chain (COL11A1) and angiotensin Ⅱ receptor type 1 (AGTR1) in castrated group vs intact group. Similarly, the top up-and down-regulated differentially expressed genes associated with lipid metabolism were stearoyl-coA desaturase 1 (SCD-1) and phospholipase A2 group XVI (PLA2G16). GO and KEGG analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly associated with lipid metabolism (like insulin, lipolysis, fatty acid elongation) and muscular development (such as adrenergic signaling, muscle contraction, AMPK signaling pathway) related pathways. In conclusion, castration can increase male pigs' lipid deposition, change muscular development and meat quality. There were 12 differentially expressed genes, including SCD-1, hormone-sensitive lipase(HSL), glucose transporter type 4(GLUT4), serine/threonine kinase(AKT), mitogen-activated protein kinase(MEK), and so on. It was reported that these genes could regulate hormone secretion, muscle development and lipid deposition. These genes were significantly associated with the alteration of meat quality in porcine after castration, so they were worth of further functional verification.

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