LUC7L-201 is an important regulator of skeletal muscle growth and development in goats identified through integration of nanopore and Illumina sequencing

Alternative splicing (AS) plays a crucial role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, influencing skeletal muscle growth and development. However, research into transcriptomic landscape of AS and its key isoforms associated with skeletal muscle in goats is comparatively limited compared with other livestock species such as pigs. In this study, longissimus dorsi muscles from 4 Macheng black goats and 4 Boer goats were used to perform Oxford Nanopore Technologies full-length sequencing and Illumina RNA-seq. A total of 91,874 unique full-length non-chimeric sequences and 10,955 novel isoforms were identified. Subsequently, we detected 13,866 AS events and 1702 novel long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), with exon skipping (4024, 29.02 %) being the most prevalent AS event. In addition, a total of 2267 differentially expressed isoforms (DEIs) were identified between Macheng black and Boer goats. Among these DEIs, 1301 isoforms were up-regulated and 966 were down-regulated in Macheng black goats. Functional enrichment analyses revealed that these DEIs were predominantly associated with pathways related to skeletal muscle development, cellular metabolic processes, and genetic information processing. Notably, we identified LUC7L-201 as an important isoform that negatively regulates cell proliferation and differentiation in goat primary myoblasts, as demonstrated by overexpression experiments. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of the transcriptomic diversity underlying skeletal muscle growth and development in goats, providing valuable insights for future research and potential applications in livestock management.