Liver Gene Expression in Pigs

The minimum sample size of three samples per group (n = 3 in the study) was calculated using RNA-seq in the liver of adult pigs (Shen et al., 2018 (link)). Litter variation (P > 0.05) was tested using linear regression model (mixed effects). A logarithmic transformation was applied to the fold change of gene abundance in order to generate Figure 1B. Gene expression abundance of NBW sample at birth was used as the denominator, by which the gene expression abundance of all samples was compared. To compare the differences among the groups, one-way analysis of variance and Duncan post-hoc test for multiple comparisons were used for normally distributed data, whereas the Kruskal–Wallis test was used for non–normally distributed data. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.0 statistical software (SAS, Cary, NC, United States). Data are expressed as means with their SEM, and values of P < 0.05 were considered significant.