Genome-Wide Profiling of the Microrna Transcriptome Regulatory Network to Identify Putative Candidate Genes Associated with Backfat Deposition in Pigs.

Xin Liu,Longchao Zhang,Fuping Zhao,Hongmei Gao,Lixian Wang,Ligang Wang,Xinhua Hou,Jianfei Gong,Hua Yan

doi:10.3390/ani9060313

Abstract

Simple SummaryBackfat thickness is an important characteristic in pig breeding. In this study, the key microRNAs (miRNAs) and genes associated with pig backfat deposition were detected and characterized using RNA sequencing between adipose tissues of high-backfat and low-backfat pigs. Strong candidate mRNA‒miRNA interaction pairs were identified to affect backfat deposition through the regulation of target genes by miRNAs. These results provide novel insights into the backfat deposition mechanism in pigs.Backfat deposition is strongly related to carcass traits, growth rate, feed conversion rate, and reproductive performance in pig production. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying porcine backfat thickness phenotypes, transcriptome and miRNA profiling of backfat from high-backfat thickness and low-backfat thickness pigs were performed by RNA sequencing. Twenty genes encoding for miRNAs and 126 genes encoding for protein-coding genes were found to be differentially expressed between the two libraries. After integrative analysis of DEMs targets and DEGs, a total of 33 mRNA‒miRNA interaction pairs were identified, and the regulatory networks of these pairs were determined. Among these genes, five (AQP9, DKK3, GLYCTK, GLIPR1, and DUSP2) related to fat deposition were found to be strong candidate genes, and mir-31-5p/AQP9 and mir-31-5p/GLIPR1 may play important roles in fat deposition. Additionally, potential adipogenesis-related genes and miRNAs were identified. These findings improve the current understanding of the molecular genetic mechanisms of subcutaneous fat deposition in pigs and provide a foundation for further studies.

Highlights

Backfat deposition is an important characteristic studied in pigs because of its strong relationship with carcass traits, growth rate, feed conversion rate, and reproductive performance in pig production.backfat deposition and fat traits affect the human nutritional value of pig products [1].Reducing backfat thickness is a major goal in swine breeding programs to provide lean meat to consumers
The target genes regulated by differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were predicted, and an integrated analysis of DEMs and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was performed
The results suggested that some miRNAs, and genes are strong candidates for regulating the accumulation of backfat thickness in pigs

Summary

Introduction

Backfat deposition is an important characteristic studied in pigs because of its strong relationship with carcass traits, growth rate, feed conversion rate, and reproductive performance in pig production.backfat deposition and fat traits affect the human nutritional value of pig products [1].Reducing backfat thickness is a major goal in swine breeding programs to provide lean meat to consumers. Backfat deposition is an important characteristic studied in pigs because of its strong relationship with carcass traits, growth rate, feed conversion rate, and reproductive performance in pig production. Backfat deposition and fat traits affect the human nutritional value of pig products [1]. Reducing backfat thickness is a major goal in swine breeding programs to provide lean meat to consumers. Pigs are more closely related to humans in terms of anatomy, genetics, and physiology than mice, and pigs are more suitable for human health research [2]. Examining adipogenesis in pigs can provide insight into human obesity, diabetes, and even cardiovascular disease.

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