Transcriptomic investigation of embryonic pectoral muscle reveals increased myogenic processes in Shitou geese compared to Wuzong geese

ABSTRACT

1.Embryonic stages before birth are crucial for poultry muscle development, as this determines muscle mass in adulthood. This study characterised the distinction in embryonic pectoral muscle development between Wuzong (WZE, small) and Shitou (STE, large) geese (two indigenous goose breeds in Guangdong Province, China) at embryonic days 15 (E15), 23 (E23) and the day of hatching (P1) to gain insights into the regulatory mechanisms of muscle development.

2.The results showed that STE had significantly higher myofibre density during E15-P1 and had significantly larger myofibre diameter at E15 than WZE. By RNA-sequencing analysis, 19 507 genes were detected, and 7121 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified.

3.Gene expression distinctions between breeds began increasing from E23, and WZE had different gene expression profiles compared to STE. A GO analysis of DEGs indicated that myo-genes involved at E15 may influence distinct pectoral muscle development characteristics between WZE and STE. The RT-qPCR results were consistent with the RNA-sequencing analysis. Four muscle structure protein coding genes (MYL2, MYL3, TNNI2 and TNNC2 and three other functional genes (CAV3, CACNA1S and NOS1) were identified in a predicted interaction network. These functional genes may interact with muscle structural protein coding genes to regulate embryonic pectoral muscle development in WZE and STE geese.

4.The study revealed that STE and WZE had divergent embryonic pectoral muscle development patterns and these differences may begin before E15.

KEYWORDS:

• Myogenesis
• transcriptome
• skeletal muscle
• regulation
• development

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the BMK Cloud (Beijing, China) for providing us with technical assistance in bioinformatics analysis, and LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Authors contribution

Y.H., Y.T. and X.Z. conceived and designed the experiments. J.W. and X.L. performed the experiments and wrote the paper. X.S. provided experimental animals. D.X. helped interpret the results. All authors reviewed the manuscript and agreed with its publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The raw data of RNA-seq have been submitted to SRA database under series PRJNA665623. URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31902134]; Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province [2018A030310009]; National Key Technologies R&D Program of China [2016YFD0500510]; Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province [2020B020222003]; the Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou [201906010040].