Co-expression analysis of fetal weight-related genes in ovine skeletal muscle during mid and late fetal development stages.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Muscle development and lipid metabolism play important roles during fetal development stages. The commercial Texel sheep are more muscular than the indigenous Ujumqin sheep.

Results

We performed serial transcriptomics assays and systems biology analyses to investigate the dynamics of gene expression changes associated with fetal longissimus muscles during different fetal stages in two sheep breeds. Totally, we identified 1472 differentially expressed genes during various fetal stages using time-series expression analysis. A systems biology approach, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), was used to detect modules of correlated genes among these 1472 genes. Dramatically different gene modules were identified in four merged datasets, corresponding to

SUBMITTER: Xu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4183924 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature