De novo characterization of velvet skin transcriptome at the antlers tips of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and analysis of growth factors and their receptors related to regeneration

The regeneration of antler velvet represents a new form of stem-cell-derived full skin regeneration,including associated appendages. while much is known of the morphological changes involved in this process,transcriptome data are lacking. in this study,we performed de novo transcriptome assembly and analysis of 27.44 million clean short reads for regenerating velvet skin in red deer (cervus elaphus) using rna-sequencing technology. these reads were assembled into 68,924 unique sequences. based on blastx alignment,we identified 33,471 distinct transcripts. assembled sequences were then annotated using gene ontology terms,clusters of orthologous groups classifications,and the kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes. of the 33,471 annotated sequences,9,252 sequences were categorized into 52 go functional groups,and 11,428 sequences had a cog classification. in total,we assigned 25,577 of the annotated sequences to 241 kegg pathways. we found a number of highly expressed genes,including collagens,ribosomal proteins,growth factors,growth factors receptors,and extracellular matrix proteins. the data generated in this study represent the most comprehensive sequence resource available for regenerating velvet skin in red deer antlers and provide a basis for further research on deer antler molecular genetics and functional genomics.