Differentially Expressed lncRNAs Related to the Development of Abdominal Fat in Gushi Chickens and Their Interaction Regulatory Network

Bin Zhai,Hong Li,Guoxi Li,Yinli Zhao,Yanhua Zhang,Pengtao Yuan,Shengxin Fan,Hongtai Li,Hetian Huang,Yuanfang Li,Xiangtao Kang,Shuaihao Li

doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.802857

Bin Zhai, Hong Li + Show 10 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.802857

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Journal: Frontiers in Genetics	Publication Date: Dec 24, 2021
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Henan Agricultural University

Abstract

Chickens are one of the most important sources of meat worldwide, and the growth status of abdominal fat is closely related to production efficiency. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in lipid metabolism and deposition regulation. However, research on the expression profile of lncRNAs related to the development of abdominal fat in chickens after hatching and their interaction regulatory networks is still lacking. To characterize the lncRNA expression profile during the development of chicken abdominal fat, abdominal adipose tissues from 6-, 14-, 22-, and 30-week-old Chinese Gushi chickens were herein used to construct 12 cDNA libraries, and a total of 3,827 new lncRNAs and 5,466 previously annotated lncRNAs were revealed. At the same time, based on the comparative analysis of five combinations, 276 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE-lncRNAs) were screened. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the predicted target genes of these DE-lncRNAs were significantly enriched in pathways related to the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression, negative regulation of cell proliferation, cell adhesion and other biological processes, glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, PPAR signaling, fatty acid degradation, fatty acid synthesis and others. In addition, association analysis of the lncRNA transcriptome profile was performed, and DE-lncRNA-related lncRNA-mRNA, lncRNA-miRNA and lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction regulatory networks were constructed. The results showed that DE-lncRNA formed a complex network with PPAR pathway components, including PPARD, ACOX1, ADIPOQ, CPT1A, FABP5, ASBG2, LPL, PLIN2 and related miRNAs, including mir-200b-3p, mir-130b-3p, mir-215-5p, mir-122-5p, mir-223 and mir-125b-5p, and played an important regulatory role in biological processes such as lipid metabolism, adipocyte proliferation and differentiation. This study described the dynamic expression profile of lncRNAs in the abdominal fat of Gushi chickens for the first time and constructed the DE-lncRNA interaction regulatory network. The results expand the number of known lncRNAs in chicken abdominal fat and provide valuable resources for further elucidating the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism of chicken abdominal fat development or deposition.

Highlights

Abdominal fat is the main type of fat tissue in chickens
9,427 Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) transcripts were located in the intergenic region, 1,061 lncRNA transcripts were located in introns, 1,200 lncRNA transcripts were antisense lncRNAs, and 79 lncRNAs were sense-strand overlapping transcripts (Figure 1B)
LncRNAs are widely involved in the regulation of biological processes such as gene expression, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and cell apoptosis (Fatica and Bozzoni, 2014; Wei et al, 2015; Chen et al, 2017; He et al, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Abdominal fat is the main type of fat tissue in chickens. In the past few decades, the growth rates and body weights of chickens have increased, resulting in the excessive deposition of body fat, especially abdominal fat, thereby reducing feed utilization and the rates of egg production, fertilization and hatching among other negative effects (Whitehead and Griffin, 1984; Triyuwanta et al, 1992; Knowles et al, 2008). The interaction of lncRNA IMFlnc and miR-199a-5p can upregulate CAV-1 and promote adipogenesis in pig intramuscular adipocytes, and lncRNA Gm15290 promotes PPARcinduced fat deposition by adsorbing miR-27b (Liu et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2020). These studies have increased our understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating the development of animal adipose tissue, and lncRNAs have become new targets for elucidating the regulatory mechanism underlying the formation of animal adipose tissue-related traits. Fewer studies were associated with chicken abdominal fat development (Muret et al, 2019)

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