A Comparative Analysis of Metabolic Profiles of Embryonic Skeletal Muscle from Lantang and Landrace Pigs

Simple Summary The pig is one of the most important domesticated meat animals. Some studies have revealed that pigs with low meat production show more intense myogenesis at the early stage of embryonic muscle development than pigs with high meat production. Here, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry GC-MS based metabolomics, we concluded that the nucleotide metabolism and energy metabolism of the longissimus lumborum (LL) were increased in Lantang pigs compared with Landrace pigs, indicating rapid synthesis of nucleic acids and ATP to meet the material and energy requirements of rapid cell proliferation and differentiation in Lantang pigs. Elucidation of the complex regulation of porcine muscle development is key to increasing pork output and improving pork quality. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in early porcine embryonic muscle development in different pig breeds remain largely unknown. Here, GC-MS based metabolomics and metabolomic profiling was used to examine the longissimus lumborum (LL) of the Lantang (LT) and the Landrace (LR) pig at embryonic day 35 (E35). Metabolites showed clear separation between LT and LR, with 40 metabolites having higher abundances in LT and 14 metabolites having lower abundances in LT compared with LR. In addition, these metabolic changes were mainly associated with nucleotide metabolism and energy metabolism, such as purine metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the TCA cycle. More interestingly, the contents of DNA, RNA, and ATP per unit mass of LL tissues were higher in LT, indicating rapid synthesis of nucleic acids and ATP, to meet both the material and energy requirements of rapid cell proliferation and differentiation. Furthermore, enzyme activity associated with the TCA cycle and pentose phosphate pathway, including alpha-ketoglutaric dehydrogenase (KGDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), were higher in LT. Based on these results, we conclude that there are significant differences in nucleotide metabolism and energy metabolism of LL between LT and LR, and we speculate that the enhanced nucleic acid metabolism and energy metabolism in LT can meet the material and energy requirements of rapid cell proliferation and differentiation, making myogenesis more intense in LT compared to LR which might be the metabolic mechanism underlying the distinct skeletal muscle development in the two breeds.