lncRNA sequencing of Qingyu pig skeletal muscle

mRNAs and lncRNAs are differentially expressed during skeletal muscle development, but little study focuses on skeletal muscle transcriptome based on their fine-tune timepoint according to the growth curve for porcine. We investigated Qingyu pigs in stages of growth at the inflection point with the maximum growth rate (MGI) and the other two asymptotic stages (the inflection of gradual increase stage to rapid increasing stage: GRI, the inflection point of rapid increasing stage to slowly increasing stage: RSI). Subsequently, we explored expression profiles of transcripts in muscle development at MGI, GRI and RSI stages by Ribo-Zero RNA sequencing. We found that Qingyu pigs reached the maximum growth rate MGI, GRI and RSI at 156.40 days of age with 51.73 kg body weight, 23.82 days of age with 3.14 kg body weight and 288.97 days of age with 107.03 kg body weight, respectively. A total of 14,530 mRNA and 11,970 lncRNAs were obtained from three stages, respectively. Among them, 645 DEGs (differentially expressed genes) were identified between GRI and MGI, and 323 DEGs were identified between RSI and MGI. Likewise, 696 DELs (differentially expressed lncRNAs) were identified between GRI and MGI, and 706 DELs were identified between RSI and MGI. Taken together, the functional enrichment analysis revealed that the immune system development, the metabolism of three major nutrients (including amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids) as well as energy, and lipids metabolism were enriched in GRI, MGI and RSI stage, respectively.