Abstract
Skeletal muscle development plays an important role in muscle quality and yield, which decides the economic value of livestock. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be associated with skeletal muscle development. However, little is revealed about the function of lncRNAs in rabbits’ muscle development. LncRNAs and mRNAs in two rabbit breeds (ZIKA rabbits (ZKR) and Qixin rabbits (QXR)) with different growth rates at three developmental stages (0 day, 35 days, and 84 days after birth) were researched by transcriptome sequencing. Differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were identified for two rabbit breeds at the same stages by DESeq package. Co-expression correlation analysis of differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were performed to construct lncRNA–mRNA pairs. To explore the function of lncRNAs, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of co-expression mRNAs in lncRNA–mRNA pairs were performed. In three comparisons, there were 128, 109, and 115 differentially expressed lncRNAs, respectively. LncRNAs TCONS_00013557 and XR_518424.2 differentially expressed in the two rabbit breeds might play important roles in skeletal muscle development, for their co-expressed mRNAs were significantly enriched in skeletal muscle development related GO terms. This study provides potentially functional lncRNAs in skeletal muscle development of two rabbit breeds and might be beneficial to the production of rabbits.
Highlights
The meat of rabbits as a functional food provides dietetic properties and remarkable nutritive value [1,2]
128, 109, and 115 differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were identified between ZIKA rabbits (ZKR) and Qixin Rabbits (QXR) at S1, S2, S1, S2, S3, respectively
Emerging research suggests that lncRNAs play a significant role in the muscle development of pigs [3], bull calves [4], chickens [5], sheep [6], and humans [7]
Summary
The meat of rabbits as a functional food provides dietetic properties and remarkable nutritive value [1,2]. It is becoming more and more popular to people on account of its characteristics of rich protein, low cholesterol, and low fat. Improving the yield and quality of rabbits muscle might be the central task for breeding rabbits. Most long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) generate at certain stages of biological development in a specific manner of cell or tissue. Emerging research showed that lncRNAs participated in the development of skeletal muscle in livestock.
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