Abstract
Yak (Bos grunniens) is considered an iconic symbol of Tibet and high altitude, but they suffer from malnutrition during the cold season that challenges the metabolism of energy. Adipocytes perform a crucial role in maintaining the energy balance, and adipocyte differentiation is a complex process involving multiple changes in the expression of genes. N 6-methyladenosine (m6A) plays a dynamic role in post-transcription gene expression regulation as the most widespread mRNA modification of the higher eukaryotes. However, currently there is no research existing on the m6A transcriptome-wide map of bovine animals and their potential biological functions in adipocyte differentiation. Therefore, we performed methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to determine the distinctions in m6A methylation and gene expression during yak adipocyte differentiation. In yak adipocyte and preadipocyte the content of m6A and m6A-associated enzymes was substantially different. In the two groups, a total of 14,710 m6A peaks and 13,388 m6A peaks were identified. For the most part, m6A peaks were enriched in stop codons, 3′-untranslated regions, and coding regions with consensus motifs of GGACU. The functional enrichment exploration displayed that differentially methylated genes participated in some of the pathways associated with adipogenic metabolism, and several candidate genes (KLF9, FOXO1, ZNF395, and UHRF1) were involved in these pathways. In addition to that, there was a positive association between m6A abundance and levels of gene expression, which displayed that m6A may play a vital role in modulating gene expression during yak adipocyte differentiation. Further, in the adipocyte group, several methylation gene protein expression levels were significantly higher than in preadipocytes. In short, it can be concluded that the current study provides a comprehensive explanation of the m6A features in the yak transcriptome, offering in-depth insights into m6A topology and associated molecular mechanisms underlying bovine adipocyte differentiation, which might be helpful for further understanding its mechanisms.
Highlights
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) was first discovered in the 1970s as the most prevalent internal modification of polyadenylated mRNAs and long noncoding RNAs in higher eukaryotes (Desrosiers et al, 1974; Perry and Kelley, 1974; Adams and Cory, 1975; Furuichi et al, 1975; Lavi and Shatkin, 1975; Wei and Moss, 1975)
To overview the m6A methylation during yak adipocyte differentiation, the expression of RNA methylation-related genes was contrasted by quantitative real-time PCR detected, including METTL3, Wilms Tumor 1-associated protein (WTAP), METTL14, fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO), alkB homolog 5 (ALKBH5), and YTHDC1/2
Comparing the group of preadipocytes (Pread0) and adipocytes (Ad), the findings show that the expression level of methyltransferases (METTL14, WTAP, and METTL3) and ALKBH5 were dramatically upregulated, whereas FTO was substantially downregulated, and m6A-binding proteins (YTHDC1 and YTHDC2) were drastically upregulated (Figure 1D)
Summary
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) was first discovered in the 1970s as the most prevalent internal modification of polyadenylated mRNAs and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in higher eukaryotes (Desrosiers et al, 1974; Perry and Kelley, 1974; Adams and Cory, 1975; Furuichi et al, 1975; Lavi and Shatkin, 1975; Wei and Moss, 1975). MeRIP-seq has been used to identify the m6A profile in humans and mice These results reveal that m6A is predominantly located close to stop codons, 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTRs), and in long internal exons and transcription start sites, suggesting that m6A plays a crucial role in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. These innovative studies reflect that the construction of transcriptome-wide m6A methylome profiles is of great importance to further investigate the characteristics and functions of such modification
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