Identification of reproduction-related genes in the hypothalamus of the sheep (Ovis aries) using the ONT full-length transcriptome sequencing technology

the hypothalamus tissues of high-reproduction small-tailed Han sheep and low-reproduction Wadi sheep were collected, and full-length transcriptome sequencing by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) was performed to explore the key functional genes associated with sheep fecundity. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened and enriched using DESeq2 software through Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). three healthy small-tailed Han sheep and three healthy Wadi sheep with similar body composition, were selected to form a high-reproduction group (HP group, small-tailed Han sheep) and a lowreproduction group (LP group, Wadi sheep). Oxford Nanopore Technologies (full-length transcriptome sequencing technology) was used for mRNA identification, screening, and functional analysis of the different groups.