Differential MicroRNA Expression Involved in Endometrial Receptivity of Goats.

Xupeng Zang,Yaokun Li,Linjun Hong,Guangbin Liu,Chen Zhou,Wenjing Wang,Jianyu Gan,Dewu Liu

doi:10.3390/biom11030472

Abstract

Endometrial receptivity represents one of the leading factors affecting the successful implantation of embryos during early pregnancy. However, the mechanism of microRNAs (miRNAs) to establish goat endometrial receptivity remains unclear. This study was intended to identify potential miRNAs and regulatory mechanisms associated with establishing endometrial receptivity through integrating bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification. MiRNA expression profiles were obtained by high-throughput sequencing, resulting in the detection of 33 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs), followed by their validation through quantitative RT-PCR. Furthermore, 10 potential transcription factors (TFs) and 1316 target genes of these DEMs were obtained, and the TF–miRNA and miRNA–mRNA interaction networks were constructed. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses indicated that these miRNAs were significantly linked to establishing endometrial receptivity. Moreover, the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis, dual-luciferase report assay, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis corroborated that chi-miR-483 could directly bind to deltex E3 ubiquitin ligase 3L (DTX3L) to reduce its expression level. In conclusion, our findings contribute to a better understanding of molecular mechanisms regulating the endometrial receptivity of goats, and they provide a reference for improving embryo implantation efficiency.

Highlights

Embryo implantation is essential for the normal development of embryos in all mammals
By purifying and sequencing small RNAs from goat endometrium, a comprehensive identification could be accomplished for changes in the expression level of miRNAs in the endometrium of pregnant and nonpregnant goats on day 16 after insemination
After removing low-quality reads and adaptor sequences, 11,966,417 and 13,227,072 raw reads were acquired from the endometrium of C16 and P16, respectively (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Embryo implantation is essential for the normal development of embryos in all mammals. Receptive endometrium formation is a spatiotemporal process governed by numerous growth hormones, in addition to transcription factors and cytokines, such as estrogen and progesterone [4,5,6]. During this period, endometrium architecture and function have experienced remarkable variations, including the proliferation of endometrial stromal cells and differentiation of endometrial epithelial cells, making the uterus receptive to attachment and implantation by the embryo, thereby supporting the subsequent rapid embryo development [5,7]. Supplementary research is required to acquire a more obvious precise molecular mechanism that regulates endometrial receptivity

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Discussion

Conclusion