Identification of hub genes in meat quality of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) fed with faba bean by muscle tissue transcriptomic analysis

Abstract

Crisp grass carp is a type of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) that has been fed faba beans. Flesh quality and expression of muscle quality-related genes in muscle of grass carp were evaluated. Compared with ordinary grass carp, 1901 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were up-regulated and 1628 DEGs were down-regulated in crisp grass carp. The GO analysis results showed that the DEGs were enriched in ribosomes and proteins. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis results showed that amino acid metabolism was closely related to meat quality. COX3, ACADS, ACAT1, ECHS1, EHHADH, HADHAA, HADH, HMGCL, MCCC1 and MCCC2 were the top 10 hub genes most closely associated with other nodes and showed a strong positive correlation. Hardness was positively correlated with the COX3, ECHS1, ACADS, ACAT1, HADHA, HADH, HMGCL and MCCC1. These results have been demonstrated to play important roles in clarifying the molecular mechanism of muscle firmness increase in crisp grass carp.

Highlights

• Feeding faba bean meal improved texture parameters of grass carp.

• A more comprehensive crisp grass carp transcriptome database was established.

• Several amino acid metabolism pathway that were closely related to meat quality were identified.

Keywords:

• Ctenopharyngodon idellus
• faba bean
• meat quality
• RNA sequencing

Author contributions

Meilin Hao and Chuntao Li participated in the design of the study. Wenjie Cheng and Yuxiao Xie did the experiments and did the data analysis. Meilin Hao, Sumei Zhao and Wenjie Cheng drafted the manuscript and all authors contributed to finalising the writing.

Ethical approval

The experiment was carried out in accordance with the research plan of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Zunyi Normal College (protocol number: ZUNSHIFA[2018]08).

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All authors agree to participate in the publication of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the fundings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The research is supported by the Guizhou Province Colleges and Universities Youth Science and Technology Talent Development Project (Qian Jiao He KY[2020]106) and Zunyi Normal College PhD Start-Up Fund (BS[2019]26).