Microarray analyses to identify differentially expressed genes for assessing meat quality in swine

Abstract

In order to identify candidate genes and molecular mechanisms that influence meat quality and production in pigs, microarray experiments were carried out to find differences in gene expression levels between two pools of six individuals, constituting the extreme tails of the Gaussian distribution of seven adjusted phenotypes of 100 Landrace and Large White animals. The phenotypes considered in this study were: muscle compactness, marbling, colour uniformity, fat covering, colour, dorsal fat, thickness, ham fat thickness. 437 differentially expressed ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) were found, clustering in different pathways according to their ontology. In particular, 73 functional categories were identified and ten of them could have a role in meat quality. Among the ESTs belonging to these pathways, seven of them were selected to be validated in quantitative real-time RT-PCR.