Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in the Longissimus Dorsi Muscle Tissue between Duroc and Erhualian Pigs by mRNA Differential Display

Abstract

In order to identify differentially expressed mRNAs (which represent possible candidates for significant phenotypic variances of muscle growth, meat quality between introduced European and Chinese indigenous pigs) in the longissimus dorsi muscle tissue between adult Duroc and Erhualian pigs, mRNA differential display was performed. Five 3' anchor primers in combination with 20 different 5' arbitrary primers (100 primer sets) were used and nearly 5,000 cDNA bands were examined, among which 10 differential display cDNAs were obtained, cloned and sequenced. Six of the 10 cDNAs showed similarity to identified genes from GenBank and the other 4 had no matches in GenBank. Differential expression was tested by Northern blot hybridization and could be confirmed for 2 cDNAs. The method used in this study provides a useful molecular tool to investigate genetic variation that occurs at the transcriptional level between different breeds.