Sequencing of the chicken epitranscriptome
Intramuscular fat(IMF) is one of the important factors affecting meat quality, and IMF deposition is a complex physiological process in which multiple regulatory factors interact. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common epigenetic modification among eukaryotic RNA modifications and plays an important role in regulating the post-transcriptional expression of genes. However, the functional mechanism of m6A modification in the deposition of IMF in poultry is not well studied. In the present study, we analyzed the differences in IMF in the breast and leg muscles of 180-day-old Jingyuan chickens and performed methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to investigate the distribution of m6A and its potential regulatory mechanisms on IMF deposition in chickens.