Abstract
BackgroundThe parasitic nematodes Ascaris lumbricoides and A. suum are of great public health and economic significance, and the two taxa were proposed to represent a single species. miRNAs are known with functions of gene regulations at post-transcriptional level.ResultsWe herein compared the miRNA profiles of A. lumbricoides and A. suum female adults by Solexa deep sequencing combined with bioinformatics analysis and stem-loop real-time PCR. Using the A. suum genome as the reference genome, we obtained 171 and 494 miRNA candidates from A. lumbricoides and A. suum, respectively. Among which, 74 miRNAs were shared between the two taxa, 97 and 420 miRNAs were A. lumbricoides and A. suum specific. Target and function prediction revealed a significant set of targets which are related to ovarian message protein, vitellogenin and chondroitin proteoglycan of the two nematodes. Enrichment analysis revealed that the percentages of most predicted functions of the miRNA targets were similar, with some taxon specific or taxon enhanced functions, such as different target numbers, specific functions (NADH dehydrogenase and electron carrier functions), etc.ConclusionsThis study characterized comparatively the miRNAs of adult A. lumbricoides and A. suum, and the findings provide additional evidence that A. lumbricoides and A. suum represent a single species. Due to the fast evolution nature of miRNAs and the different parasitic living conditions of humans and pigs, the phenomenon above might indicate a fast evolution of miRNAs of Ascaris in humans and pigs.
Highlights
The parasitic nematodes Ascaris lumbricoides and A. suum are of great public health and economic significance, and the two taxa were proposed to represent a single species. miRNAs are known with functions of gene regulations at post-transcriptional level
Ethics statement The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Approval No LVRIAEC 2011-006), and the A. lumbricoides and A. suum samples were collected strictly according to the requirements of the Ethics Procedures and Guidelines of the People's Republic of China
Length distribution analysis showed that the reads of A. lumbricoides and A. suum were focused on 21–23 nt
Summary
The parasitic nematodes Ascaris lumbricoides and A. suum are of great public health and economic significance, and the two taxa were proposed to represent a single species. miRNAs are known with functions of gene regulations at post-transcriptional level. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNA of 18–24 nt in length They are considered as key regulators for gene expression at the post-transcriptional level [9,10,11,12]. Due to their key regulating functions in growth, metabolism, development and cell differentiation and their ability to respond to environmental and developmental signals, miRNA is essential for the complex life cycles of human and animal parasites [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Studies have indicated that miRNAs may represent potential biomarkers for various biomedical problems, such as the differentiation of different tumors and muscular tissues [27,28,29], and they may provide biomarkers for the characterization of different genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii [30]
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