During the growth and development of skeletal muscle cells and adipose cells, the regulatory mechanism of micro-effect polygenes determines porcine meat quality, carcass characteristics and other relative quantitative traits. Obese and lean type pig breeds show obvious differences in muscle growth and adipose deposition; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this phenotypic variation remains unknown. We used pathway-focused oligo microarray studies to examine the expression changes of 140 genes associated with muscle growth and adipose deposition in longissimus dorsi muscle at six growth stages (birth, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 months) of Landrace (a leaner, Western breed) and Taihu pigs (a fatty, indigenous, Chinese breed). Variance analysis (ANOVA) revealed that differences in the expression of 18 genes in Landrace pigs and three genes in Taihu pigs were very significant (FDR-adjusted permutation, P