Whole Transcriptome Analysis of Preadipocytes and Adipocytes and Construction of Regulatory Networks to Investigate Lipid Metabolism in Sheep

Increasing livestock intramuscular fat content can significantly improve the taste and quality of meat. The adipogenesis and fat accumulation mechanisms are very complex with the sheep-specific mechanisms still remaining unclear. The aim of the present study was to improve Small Tail Han sheep meat quality traits. To reach this aim, we explored RNA transcripts which are differentially expressed in between preadipocytes and mature adipocytes using whole transcriptome sequencing and we re-constructed regulatory networks to study cell differentiation.