A comprehensive study on the longissius dorsi muscle of Ashdan yaks under different feeding regimes based on transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses

Abstract

Yak is an important dominant livestock species at high altitude, and the growth performance of yak has obvious differences under different feeding methods. This experiment was conducted to compare the effects of different feeding practices on growth performance and meat quality of yaks through combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses. In terms of yak growth performance, compared with traditional grazing, in-house feeding can significantly improve the average daily weight gain, carcass weight and net meat weight of yaks; in terms of yak meat quality, in-house feeding can effectively improve the quality of yak meat. A combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis revealed 31 co-enriched pathways, among which arginine metabolism, proline metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism may be involved in the development of the longissimus dorsi muscle of yak and the regulation of meat quality-related traits. The experimental results increased our understanding of yak meat quality and provided data materials for subsequent deep excavation of the mechanism of yak meat quality.

Keywords:

• Yak
• longissimus dorsi muscle
• meat quality
• transcriptomics
• metabolomics

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Key Laboratory of Yak Breeding Engineering in Gansu Province for providing the experimental conditions and the teachers and brothers for their help.

Authors’ contribution

Conceptualization, T.W., X.M. and P.Y.; methodology, T.W.; software, T.W. and X.M.; formal analysis, Q.Z. and C.M.; investigation, Z.Z.; resources, X.W., M.C., and H.P.; data curation, H.P., C.L. and P.Y.; writing – original draft preparation, T.W.; writing – review and editing, T.W., X.M. and C.M.; visualization, Z.Z. and X.G.; supervision, P.Y.; project administration, P.Y.; funding acquisition, P.Y. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Institutional review board Statement

All animal studies conducted in this study were approved by the Animal Administration and Ethics Committee of Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SYXK-2014–0002).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Data used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32102524), the Major Science and Technology Special Projects in Gansu Province (21ZD10NA001, GZGG-2021-1), the National Beef Cattle Industry Technology & System (CARS-37), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (25-LZIHPS-01) and the Science and Technology program of Gansu Province (20JR5RA580) the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (KCXFZ20201221173205015).