
The real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) primers for cattle muscle-specific genes (Table S1) were designed with the Primer-BLAST tool (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/primer-blast/index.cgi), and ACTB (β-actin) was the internal reference gene. Primers were synthesized by Beijing Tsingke Biotech Co., Ltd. (Tianjin, China). The levels of gene expression were assessed utilizing Taq SYBR® Green qPCR Premix (LABLEAD Trading Co., Ltd., Beijing, China) on the QuantStudio™ 3 Real-Time PCR System (Thermo Fisher Scientific, MA, USA).