RNA-seq analysis of bovine intramuscular, subcutaneous and perirenal adipose tissues.

The deposition of intramuscular fat is an important factor affecting the beef quality, such as flavour and palatability. In this study, for further identifying the differential molecular mechanisms regulating the deposition of fat between intramuscular and external adipose tissues, particularly subcutaneous and perirenal adipose tissues, it was designed to obtain transcript sequence data and compare the transcriptomes among intramuscular, subcutaneous, and perirenal adipose tissues by RNA-Seq. A total of 66,206,912, 55,114,070 and 67,320,426 fragments were sequenced for the intramuscular (IAT), subcutaneous (SAT), and perirenal adipose tissue (PAT) respectively. Among them, total 953, 1,534, 2,026 genes showing differential expression between IAT and SAT, IAT and PAT, SAT and PAT, were identified respectively (FDR < 0.05). When these data had been mixed and analyzed together, 110 genes were differentially expressed among these three adipose tissues. Using GO enrichment analysis, multiple biological pathways were found to be significantly enriched for differentially expressed genes (FDR < 0.01), including cellular process, biological regulation, and metabolic process. In addition, total 4,625, 4,775 and 4,147 alternative splicing events occurred in IAT, SAT, and PAT, had also been detected respectively. Thus, our results logically provide the evidence for further understanding the bovine fat deposition, especially intramuscular fat, at a fine scale.