Tail fat tissue transcriptome differences in fat tail and thin tail sheep (Ovis aries) breeds revealed by whole transcriptome sequencing

The fat tail was a valuable trait that could help sheep adapting the harsh environments in history, but nowadays in intensive and semi-intensive sheep industry systems the sheep breeds which deposit the least fat in their tail are needed more. So the regulation mechanism of tail fat deposition of sheep should be uncovered to assist selecting lean sheep breeds. Altay and Xinjiang Fine Wool (XFW) sheep are two important sheep breeds which mainly distribute in Xinjiang district of China, but their ability of depositing tail fat are extremely different. So they are perfect models could be used to investigate the mechanism of sheep tail fat deposition. In present research, the RNA-seq was applied and transcriptome profiles of their tail fat tissues were determined, then the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their sequence variations were analyzed.