Full-length Transcriptome of goat skeletal muscle

Muscle development and meat quality are key traits of considerable importance to consumers and farmers. In the past, second-generation sequencing technology have been used to study genes regulating muscle development and meat quality; however, transcripts generated using this technology are short and do not fully cover the genome. Therefore, in this study, second- and third-generation sequencing technologies were employed to identify genes regulating meat quality and muscle development of goat. A large number of novel loci and isoforms were identified in the longissimus dorsi and biceps femoris muscles of the goats. Functional annotation of these genes showed that they were associated with skeletal muscle development and lipid metabolism.