Expression data from the longuissimus dorsi muscle of Qinchuan cattle, Qinghai yak and Guangxi buffalo at 36 months

Sex condition has been demonstrated to alter meat quality and sex is a major factor that affects the fatty acid composition of lipids of carcass dissectible or intramuscular depot fats. But the possible genetic molecular mechanism of gender causing meat quality differences is not well defined. Qinchuan cattle, Qinghai yak and Guangxi buffalo are three typical indigenous species of cattle in China. Obivious differences of meat quality exist among the three species of cattle. Few studies have been conducted to elucidate the muscle tissue expression of genes involved in pathways and mechanisms leading to meat quality differences beyond the phenotype properties of beef. Bovine Genome Arrays were used to construct muscle expression profiles of the longuissimus dorsi from Qinchuan cattle at 36 months and screen differentially expressed genes in the longuissimus dorsi muscle tissues among different genders of Qinchuan cattle, between Qinchuan cattle and Qinghai yak, and between Qinchuan cattle and Guangxi buffalo. Qinchuan cattle intact males, castrated males and females born within a 30-day period and of similar genetic background and reared under the same experimental conditions were used in the current study. Differentially expressed genes among the different genders were screened out, mainly involved in collagen metabolism, protein anabolism and catabolism signal transduction, regulation of cell growth and development and immunity. In addtion, this study has conducted the comparison of the muscle tissues gene expression profile of Qinchuan cattle with those of Qinghai yak and Guangxi buffalo.