Gene coexpression network analysis reveals the genes and pathways in pectoralis major muscle and liver associated with wooden breast in broilers

Wooden breast (WB) is a myopathy mainly affecting pectoralis major (PM) muscle modern commercial broiler chickens, causing enormous economic losses in the poultry industry. Recent studies have observed hepatic and PM muscle injury in broilers affected by WB, but the relationships between WB the 2 tissues are mostly unclear. In the current study, the RNA-seq raw data of PM muscle and liver were downloaded from GSE144000, and we constructed gene coexpression networks of PM muscle and liver explore the relationships between WB and the 2 tissues using the weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) method. Six and 2 gene coexpression modules were significantly correlated with WB in the muscle and liver networks, respectively. TGF-beta naling, Toll-like receptor signaling and mTOR signaling pathways were significantly enriched in the genes within the 6 gene modules of PM muscle network. Meanwhile,