Transcriptome-based revelation of plateau adaptation in Tibetan goats

Transcriptome sequencing of the rumen epithelial tissues of low-altitude and Xizang goats was done for this study. The results showed that 244 genes were differentially expressed in the rumen epithelial tissues of the two groups of goats, with 117 genes being significantly down-regulated and 127 genes being significantly up-regulated. Differentially expressed genes were analyzed by KEGG pathway enrichment to see if significant differences occurred in a given pathway. The most significantly enriched pathways were Metabolic pathways, which included Drug metabolism - cytochrome P450 (4.46%), Carbon metabolism (3.57%), Arachidonic acid metabolism (2.68%), Retinol metabolism (2.68%) and Fatty acid metabolism (1.79%), among others. The next pathways that were significantly enriched were Cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction (9.82%) and IL-17 signaling pathway (5.36%).