Evaluation of body growth and immunity-related differentially expressed genes through deep RNA sequencing in the piglets of Jeju native pig and Berkshire

Summary This study was carried out with the objective to investigate the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between Jeju native pig (JNP) and Berkshire piglets. The RNA‐Seq technique was used to investigate the transcriptomes in the fat, liver and longissimus dorsi muscle from these two breeds. Paired‐end reads of the sequences that passed the quality filters were aligned to the Sus scrofa genome using tophat2 (v2.0.2). In this study, 65% of muscle, 20% of fat and 54% of liver genes showed higher expression in the piglets of JNP than in Berkshire. Gene Ontology and signaling pathways showed that immune response and lipid metabolisms were commonly enriched pathways in all three tissues. It was found that the genes pertaining to body growth and immune system are significantly (P