Screening of miRNA profiles and construction of regulation networks in early and late lactation of dairy goat mammary glands

Abstract

In recent years, studies related to the expression profiles of miRNAs in the dairy goat mammary gland were performed, but regulatory mechanisms in the physiological environment and the dynamic homeostasis of mammary gland development and lactation are not clear. In the present study, sequencing data analysis of early and late lactation uncovered a total of 1,487 unique miRNAs, including 45 novel miRNA candidates and 1,442 known and conserved miRNAs, of which 758 miRNAs were co-expressed and 378 differentially expressed with P < 0.05. Moreover, 76 non-redundant target genes were annotated in 347 GO consortiums, with 3,143 candidate target genes grouped into 33 pathways. Additionally, 18 predicted target genes of 214 miRNAs were directly annotated in mammary gland development and used to construct regulatory networks based on GO annotation and the KEGG pathway. The expression levels of seven known miRNAs and three novel miRNAs were examined using quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that miRNAs might play important roles in early and late lactation during dairy goat mammary gland development, which will be helpful to obtain a better understanding of the genetic control of mammary gland lactation and development.

Genome‑wide integrated analysis demonstrates widespread functions of lncRNAs in mammary gland development and lactation in dairy goats

“…In the present study, mammary gland tissues in early, peak and late lactation periods from five dairy goats were selected, and sequenced based on the Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 platform. To better connect with our previous study [17,18], and the integrated analysis of multiomics data in the next step, the method of mixing pools of samples in the same period was also adopted in the current study. According to the quality control results, the construction and sequencing were successful, high quality data were obtained in three libraries, and 2381 lncRNAs and 37,249 mRNAs were identified.…”

“…In our previous studies, miRNAomics and transcriptomics of dairy goat mammary glands at different lactating stages were analyzed using RNA sequencing [17,18]. In the current study, for enhanced identification and characterization of the lncRNA profiles and function at the genome level, dairy goat mammary gland tissues in early lactation ((10th day after parturition), peak lactation (90th day after parturition) and late lactation (210th day after parturition) were collected, and the distribution, expression abundance and differential expression patterns of lncRNAs among different lactating periods of mammary gland development were tested and identified.…”

Characterization of microRNA profiles in the mammary gland tissue of dairy goats at the late lactation, dry period and late gestation stages

“…In recent years, RNA-seq has become a powerful tool for large-scale gene identification, mining and expression analysis, and it provides a reliable, qualitative and quantitative method for biological research on transcription. Previously, we used RNA-seq technology to perform high-throughput sequencing of mammary gland tissue of Laoshan dairy goats at the early (20 d postpartum), peak (90 d postpartum) and late (210 d postpartum) lactation stages, identify and functionally annotate the miRNAs in mammary gland tissue and map miRNA expression profiles relevant to the mammary gland biology of Laoshan dairy goats [22][23][24]. But analyses of the miRNA transcriptome in the mammary gland tissue of dairy goats at the LL, DP and LG stages are lacking.…”

Identification of regulatory networks and hub genes controlling mammary gland development and lactation in dairy goats during the late lactation, dry period, and late gestation stages

“…In addition, in previous studies conducted in our laboratory, Laoshan dairy goats were used as a mammary gland research model to conduct studies on gene and noncoding molecules in mammary gland tissues at the early (20 d postpartum), peak (90 d postpartum) and late stages (210 d postpartum) of lactation. We mapped the expression pro les related to the regulation of mammary gland development and lactation at three stages and constructed a potential regulatory network [10][11][12]. Although scientists have made some progress in mammary gland research, for the complex physiological processes of mammary gland development and lactation, these ndings are just the tip of the iceberg, requiring further exploration.…”