Deciphering the microRNA transcriptome of skeletal muscle during porcine development.

Miaomiao Mai,Zhi Jiang,Long Jin,Shilin Tian,An’An Jiang,Rui Liu,Mingzhou Li,Wenyao Huang,Jideng Ma,Chaowei Zhou,Xuewei Li,Dawei Wang,Qianzi Tang,Xun Wang,Yaodong Hu

doi:10.7717/peerj.1504

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in many important biological processes, such as growth and development in mammals. Various studies of porcine muscle development have mainly focused on identifying miRNAs that are important for fetal and adult muscle development; however, little is known about the role of miRNAs in middle-aged muscle development. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of miRNA transcriptomes across five porcine muscle development stages, including one prenatal and four postnatal stages. We identified 404 known porcine miRNAs, 118 novel miRNAs, and 101 miRNAs that are conserved in other mammals. A set of universally abundant miRNAs was found across the distinct muscle development stages. This set of miRNAs may play important housekeeping roles that are involved in myogenesis. A short time-series expression miner analysis indicated significant variations in miRNA expression across distinct muscle development stages. We also found enhanced differentiation- and morphogenesis-related miRNA levels in the embryonic stage; conversely, apoptosis-related miRNA levels increased relatively later in muscle development. These results provide integral insight into miRNA function throughout pig muscle development stages. Our findings will promote further development of the pig as a model organism for human age-related muscle disease research.

Highlights

Skeletal muscle makes up approximately 40% of mammalian body mass (Güller & Russell, 2010), and maintaining skeletal muscle function is a prerequisite for maintaining normal body function
We performed a comprehensive investigation of miRNA expression pattern in skeletal muscle across various developmental processes, from embryonic to adult stages, in pigs
We identified a number of Differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs that were associated with porcine muscular development

Summary

Introduction

Skeletal muscle makes up approximately 40% of mammalian body mass (Güller & Russell, 2010), and maintaining skeletal muscle function is a prerequisite for maintaining normal body function. Numerous conditions, including neuromuscular disorders, sedentary lifestyles, chronic disease, and aging, have been shown to be associated with loss of skeletal muscle mass and function (Di Giovanni et al, 2004; Dogra et al, 2007; Jagoe & Goldberg, 2001; Lynch, 2001). Postnatal muscle development is mainly associated with accumulation of myonuclei (satellite cell proliferation) and muscle-specific proteins (Rehfeldt et al, 2000). It is well documented that the remarkable structural and functional changes in skeletal muscle that occur during aging, including reduction in muscle mass and increased apoptosis (Dirks & Leeuwenburgh, 2002; Janssen et al, 2000; Jemal et al, 2008; Nair, 2005; Navarro, Lopez-Cepero & Sánchez, 2001; Pollack et al, 2002), always start at the mid-point of the lifespan (Nair, 2005)

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