Transcriptomic index of skeletal muscle of beef breeds bulls.

In the present study cDNA microarray (18263 probes) were used for analysis of bovine skeletal muscle (m.semitendinosus) transcriptome in 12-month-old bulls of four cattle breeds: Holstein-Friesian (HF), Limousine (LIM), Hereford (HER) and Polish Red (PR), aiming to identify the genes, which expression is common for beef breed bulls. The number of transcripts significantly different from HF bulls muscle amounted to 393, 462 and 638 for LIM, HER and PR, respectively. As a result of this study the transcriptomic index was proposed, being the set of 48 genes expressed similarly in beef breed bulls in comparison to HF bulls. Classification of genes according to molecular function of their protein products has shown the highest number of genes encoding proteins involved in nucleic acid binding (10), regulatory proteins (6), kinases (4) and signaling molecules (3). Classification according to biological processes revealed the highest number of genes involved in protein metabolism i modification (14), signal transduction (5), cell cycle (4), intracellular protein traffic (4), nucleoside, nucleotide and nucleic acid metabolism (4), apoptosis (3), cell structure and motility (3), and cellular transport (3). Since the role of the most genes included to the transcriptomic index has not been described yet in bovine skeletal muscle, obtained results may be very useful in revealing new candidate genes to search a new criteria of animal selection in beef production.