Crucial gene networks for fatty acid metabolism during lactation revealed by RNA-Sequencing of the goat mammary gland

摘要

Milk fatty acids secreted by the mammary glands are one of the most important determinants of the nutritional value of goat milk.However,there are few data available on the transcriptome-wide changes across lactation in the goat.In this study,goat mammary tissue from the periods encompassing lactation,cessation of milking and involution were used for digital gene expression sequencing (DGE) using the goat transcriptome as reference sequence.A total of 51299 unigenes were identified and annotated to 12763 genes,of which 9131 genes were differentially expressed (DEG) among the various stages of lactation.Functional classification through KOG,GO,and KEGG was used for selection of the top expressed genes and the differentially expressed genes (DEG).DEG series-cluster analysis revealed 16 possible expression patterns.Using co-expression analysis,within the lipid transport and metabolism KOG categories,PLA2,CPT1,PLD had the most number of correlated genes.GGA,SRPRB and AP4S1were the top 3 with the highest number of correlated genes associated with intracellular trafficking,secretion,and vesicular transport.These data may provide candidate genes with a high probability of having functional roles in regulating of goat fatty acid metabolism during the various stages of lactation.