Abstract

Fatty acid (FA) content affects the sensorial and nutritional value of meat and plays a significant role in biological processes such as adipogenesis and immune response. It is well known that, in beef, the main FAs associated with these biological processes are oleic acid (C18:1 cis9, OA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA-c9t11), which may have beneficial effects on metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Here, we performed differential expression and co-expression analyses, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and partial correlation with information theory (PCIT), to uncover the complex interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs expressed in skeletal muscle associated with FA content. miRNA and mRNA expression data were obtained from skeletal muscle of Nelore cattle that had extreme genomic breeding values for OA and CLA. Insulin and MAPK signaling pathways were identified by WGCNA as central pathways associated with both of these fatty acids. Co-expression network analysis identified bta-miR-33a/b, bta-miR-100, bta-miR-204, bta-miR-365-5p, bta-miR-660, bta-miR-411a, bta-miR-136, bta-miR-30-5p, bta-miR-146b, bta-let-7a-5p, bta-let-7f, bta-let-7, bta-miR 339, bta-miR-10b, bta-miR 486, and the genes ACTA1 and ALDOA as potential regulators of fatty acid synthesis. This study provides evidence and insights into the molecular mechanisms and potential target genes involved in fatty acid content differences in Nelore beef cattle, revealing new candidate pathways of phenotype modulation that could positively benefit beef production and human consumption.

Highlights

  • Fatty acid (FA) content is an important trait that can influence the sensorial and nutritional value of beef and plays a significant role in molecular and physiological processes

  • Sample sizes of extreme Nelore steers used for oleic acid (OA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) analyses were slightly different due to data availability

  • We identified 137 and 131 unique mature miRNA sequences with non-zero expression levels according to DESeq criteria for samples in OA (Supplementary Table 2) and CLA (Supplementary Table 3) groups, respectively, which were used in differential expression and co-expression analyses

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Summary

Introduction

Fatty acid (FA) content is an important trait that can influence the sensorial and nutritional value of beef and plays a significant role in molecular and physiological processes. Differences in the expression pattern of miRNAs have been identified in animals with different amounts of subcutaneous fat, which could indicate a potential regulatory role of these molecules in the development of adipose tissue (Jin et al, 2010) and fat metabolism (Romao et al, 2014). These studies have identified numerous miRNAs expressed in cattle, but the miRNA regulatory mechanisms that underlie these phenotypes are unclear

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