Abstract
Pigs supply vital dietary proteins for human consumption, and their economic value depends largely on muscle production. MicroRNAs are known to play important roles in skeletal muscle development. However, their relationship to distinct muscle production between pig breeds remains unknown. Here, we performed an integrated analysis of microRNA-mRNA expression profiles for Landrace (LR, lean) pigs and the Chinese indigenous Lantang pig (LT, lard-type) during 8 stages of skeletal muscle developmental, including at 35, 49, 63, 77 dpc (days post coitum) and 2, 28, 90, 180 dpn (days postnatal). As differentially expressed-miRNA expression profiles can be well classified into two clusters by PCA analysis, we grouped the embryonic stages as G1 and the postnatal stages as G2. A total of 203 genes were predicted miRNA targets, and a STEM analysis showed distinct expression patterns between G1 and G2 in both breeds based on their transcriptomic data. Furthermore, a STRING analysis predicted interactions between 22 genes and 35 miRNAs, including some crucial myogenic factors and myofibrillar genes. Thus, it can be reasonably speculated that myogenic miRNAs may regulate myofibrillar genes in myofiber formation during embryonic stages and muscle hypertrophy during postnatal stages, leading to distinct differences in muscle production between breeds.
Highlights
Pigs supply vital dietary proteins for human consumption, and their economic value depends largely on muscle production
Based on the criteria of a P-value ≤ 0.005, false discovery rate (FDR) ≤ 0.01, and an estimated absolute log2-fold change ≥ 0.5 in sequence counts across libraries, 258 miRNAs were found expressed in longissimus dorsi muscle during all stages, of which 152 significantly DE-miRNAs were identified between LR and LT (Table S1)
We conducted an integrative analysis of microRNA-mRNA expression profiles for LR and LT during 8 skeletal muscle developmental stages, including embryonic and postnatal stages, using the Solexa sequencing method
Summary
Pigs supply vital dietary proteins for human consumption, and their economic value depends largely on muscle production. Previous research has shown that lean and lard-type pig breeds have significant genetic differences in terms of muscle growth rate and gene expression profiles[1]. Few recent studies have performed integrated analyses of miRNA-mRNA expression profiles in pig breeds with different muscle production. Our previous analysis of the transcriptome during skeletal muscle development between LR and LT identified 595 differentially expressed myogenic genes[1] These findings are not sufficient to establish a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between miRNAs and mRNAs that regulate distinct muscle production between pig breeds. We performed an integrative analysis of the miRNA-mRNA expression profiles in LR and LT pigs during 8 stages of skeletal muscle development, including four prenatal stages (35, 49, 63, and 77 dpc) and four postnatal stages (2, 28, 90, and 180 dpn) using Solexa sequencing. Our study contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate muscle development and hypertrophy in pig breeds with distinct differences in muscle production
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