Advances in the discovery of genetic elements underlying longissimus dorsi muscle growth and development in the pig

Abstract

As a major source of protein in human diets, pig meat plays a crucial role in ensuring global food security. Key determinants of meat production refer to the chemical and physical compositions or characteristics of muscle fibers, such as the number, hypertrophy potential, fiber‐type conversion and intramuscular fat deposition. However, the growth and formation of muscle fibers comprises a complex process under spatio‐temporal regulation, that is, the intermingled and concomitant proliferation, differentiation, migration and fusion of myoblasts. Recently, with the fast and continuous development of next‐generation sequencing technology, the integration of quantitative trait loci mapping with genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) has greatly helped animal geneticists to discover and explore thousands of functional or causal genetic elements underlying muscle growth and development. However, owing to the underlying complex molecular mechanisms, challenges to in‐depth understanding and utilization remain, and the cost of large‐scale sequencing, which requires integrated analyses of high‐throughput omics data, is high. In this review, we mainly elaborate on research advances in integrative analyses (e.g. GWAS, omics) for identifying functional genes or genomic elements for longissimus dorsi muscle growth and development for different pig breeds, describing several successful transcriptome analyses and functional genomics cases, in an attempt to provide some perspective on the future functional annotation of genetic elements for muscle growth and development in pigs.

Unlocking the Transcriptional Control of NCAPG in Bovine Myoblasts: CREB1 and MYOD1 as Key Players

“…The longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle is a crucial component of animal muscle anatomy, closely associated with the growth and development of skeletal muscles and the intramuscular fat content in animals [ 33 ]. Studies have demonstrated that bovine LD muscles contain a high proportion of fast-twitch (Type II) fibers, which have larger diameters than slow-twitch (Type I) fibers, favoring muscle hypertrophy [ 34 ]. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is present in skeletal muscles and promotes skeletal muscle regeneration by activating quiescent satellite cells.…”

Transcriptome profiling of longissimus dorsi during different prenatal stages to identify genes involved in intramuscular fat deposition in lean and obese pig breeds

“…Researching the regulation mechanism of muscle development will not only help to increase meat yield, but also help to improve meat quality. Muscle development is a complicated process, including the formation of muscle fibers in embryonic period, the muscle fibers development after birth, and muscle regeneration in adulthood [ 2 ]. The embryonic stage is the most important, the number of muscle fibers is generally fixed at this stage.…”

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing and lipidomics reveal characteristics of transcriptional and lipid composition in porcine longissimus dorsi muscle

“…Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world and plays a crucial role in ensuring global food security [1,2]. The deposition and composition of lipids in pork affect its sensory and nutritional quality, with triglycerides (TG) being the main form of lipid storage [3].…”