Molecular signatures of longissimus dorsi muscle are distinct between multiparous dairy cattle with differing prepartum muscle reserves and altered by branched-chain volatile fatty acid supplementation

Dairy cattle with high (HM) versus low muscle (LM) reserves exhibit distinct temporal changes in longissimus dorsi muscle depth (LDD) in late gestation. Branched-chain volatile fatty acids (BCVFA) supplementation increased blood glucose concentrations. We hypothesized that differences in HM and LM reflect distinct muscle metabolism and BCVFA supplementation altered metabolic pathways. Our objective was to compare longissimus dorsi muscle transcriptomes and morphology between HM and LM cows and in response to BCVFA supplementation. Data presented is from RNA sequencing analysis of biopsies of the longissimus dorsi muscle in dairy cattle taken 21 days before expected calving. Cows were assigned to high muscle (HM; > 4.6 cm depth) or low muscle (LM; ≤ 4.6 cm) groups based on prepartum muscle depth assessed with ultrasonagraphy. Within these muscle groups, cows were supplemented with a control (CON) diet or branched-chain volatile fatty acids (BCVFA) diet resulting in 4 different group treatments used in the current study: HM-CON (n=13), HM-BCVFA (n=10), LM-CON (n=9), and LM-BCVFA (n=9). Muscle biopsy samples (100 mg) were sent on dry ice to Genewiz, Azenta Life Sciences (South Plainfield, NJ) for isolation of total RNA and next-generation sequencing through their Standard RNA-Seq Data Analysis Package program.