MicroRNAs and their regulatory networks in Chinese Gushi chicken abdominal adipose tissue during postnatal late development

Abstract

BackgroundAbdominal fat is the major adipose tissue in chickens. The growth status of abdominal fat during postnatal late development ultimately affects meat yield and quality in chickens. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Studies have shown that miRNAs play an important role in the biological processes involved in adipose tissue development. However, few studies have investigated miRNA expression profiles and their interaction networks associated with the postnatal late development of abdominal adipose tissue in chickens.ResultsWe constructed four small RNA libraries from abdominal adipose tissue obtained from Chinese domestic Gushi chickens at 6, 14, 22, and 30 weeks. A total of 507 known miRNAs and 53 novel miRNAs were identified based on the four small RNA libraries. Fifty-one significant differentially expressed (SDE) miRNAs were identified from six combinations by comparative analysis, and the expression patterns of these SDE miRNAs were divided into six subclusters by cluster analysis. Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed that the SDE miRNAs were primarily involved in the regulation of fat cell differentiation, regulation of lipid metabolism, regulation of fatty acid metabolism, and unsaturated fatty acid metabolism in the lipid metabolism- or deposition-related biological process categories. In addition, we constructed differentially expressed miRNA–mRNA interaction networks related to abdominal adipose development. The results showed that miRNA families, such as mir-30, mir-34, mir-199, mir-8, and mir-146, may have key roles in lipid metabolism, adipocyte proliferation and differentiation, and cell junctions during abdominal adipose tissue development in chickens.ConclusionsThis study determined the dynamic miRNA transcriptome and characterized the miRNA–mRNA interaction networks in Gushi chicken abdominal adipose tissue for the first time. The results expanded the number of known miRNAs in abdominal adipose tissue and provide novel insights and a valuable resource to elucidate post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms during postnatal late development of abdominal adipose tissue in chicken.

Molecular Regulation of Lipogenesis, Adipogenesis and Fat Deposition in Chicken

“…In chicken, the first products of de novo fatty acid synthesis are SFAs, including palmitic acid (C16:0) [ 26 ], which then genes, such as ELOVL6, can catalyze the elongation of palmitic acid (C16:0) to create stearic acid (C18:0). Subsequently, through initial desaturation of saturated fatty acids to monounsaturated fatty acids, SCD catalyzes the desaturation of palmitic and stearic acid to palmitoleic acid (C16:1) and oleic acid (C18:1), respectively [ 6 , 27 ]. Further fatty acids elongation and desaturation are catalyzed via enzymes encoded by ELOVLs, as well as FADS1 and FADS2 [ 15 ] ( Figure 1 ), which ELOVLs are essential for the rate-limiting step in the elongation cycle during the synthesis of long- and very-long-chain fatty acids (LCFA, VLCFA) [ 23 ].…”

“…There are several genes involving in different stages of fat metabolism in chicken, which their expression is regulated via different miRNAs [ 27 ], transcription factors [ 11 ], and hormones [ 30 ]. Some of these genes, including ACACA, FASN, SCD, ELOVL6, and ACLY, encoding major enzymes catalyzing important steps in different lipid-related processes in chicken.…”

MicroRNA gga-miR-200a-3p modulates immune response via MAPK signaling pathway in chicken afflicted with necrotic enteritis

“…cDNAs from mRNA were synthesized using a RevertAid First Strand cDNA Synthesis kit (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). In brief, the reaction mixture (20 μL) contained RNA (2 μg), 5× Reaction Buffer (4 μL), 10 mM dNTP Mix (2 μL), Oligo (dT) 18 primers (1 μL), RiboLock RNase Inhibitor (1 U), and RevertAid M-MuLV RT (10 U). The reaction was subjected to the following conditions: 60 min at 42 °C, followed by 70 °C for 5 min.…”

“…In chicken, gga-miR-200a regulated cell differentiation and proliferation of breast muscle by target 3′-UTR of GRB2 [17]. Additionally, gga-miR-200-3p was expressed in high abundance between 14 weeks and 22 weeks, and it also targeted TGFB3 related to TGFbeta signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway in abdominal adipose tissue during postnasal late development [18]. In response against Reticuloendotheliosis Virus, gga-miR-200a-3p was negatively correlated with CTLA4, a negative regulator of T cell activation in spleen [19].…”

Centennial Review: Metabolic microRNA - shifting gears in the regulation of metabolic pathways in poultry

“…Integration of these profiles with RNA-seq data indicated that these differentially expressed miRNA target genes were associated with adipocyte differentiation and lipid disposition ( Huang et al., 2015 ). MicroRNA profiling of abdominal adipose tissue of Gushi (Chinese domestic breed) hens found the expression of 16 miRNA decreased and 12 miRNA increased from 6 wk to 30 wk of age and these miRNA target genes were associated with adipocyte development, lipid metabolism, and cell junctions ( Chen et al., 2019b ). Differentiation (in vitro) of primary chicken preadipocytes, obtained from abdominal adipose tissue of 14-day-old Gushi chickens, altered the expression of 80 miRNA, 58 upregulated and 22 downregulated ( Ma et al., 2020 ).…”