Abstract
Fatty acid composition is an important aspect of meat quality in ruminants. Improving the beneficial fatty acid level in cashmere goat meat is important to its economic value. To investigate microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs that regulate or coregulate polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) synthesis and metabolism in the Inner Mongolia cashmere goat, we used longissimus dorsi muscle (WLM) and biceps femoris muscle (WBM) for transcript-level sequencing. RT-qPCR was used to evaluate the expression of mRNAs and miRNAs associated with PUFA synthesis and metabolism. The total PUFA content in the WBM was significantly higher than that in the WLM (P < 0.05). Our study is the first to systematically report miRNAs in cashmere goat meat. At the mRNA level, 20,375 genes were identified. ACSL1, CD36 and TECRL were at the center of a gene regulatory network and contributed significantly to the accumulation and metabolic regulation of fatty acids. At the miRNA level, 426 known miRNAs and 30 novel miRNAs were identified. KEGG analysis revealed that the miRNA target genes were involved mainly in the PPAR signaling pathway. The mRNA-miRNA coregulation analysis showed that ACSL1 was negatively targeted by nine miRNAs: chi-miR-10a-5p, chi-miR-10b-5p, chi-miR-130b-5p, chi-miR-15a-5p_R-1, chi-miR-15b-5p, chi-miR-16a-5p, chi-miR-16b-5p, chi-miR-181c-5p_R+1, and chi-miR-26b-5p. Finally, we speculated that the simultaneous silencing of ACSL1 by one or more of these nine miRNAs through PPAR signaling led to low ACSL1 expression in the WLM and, ultimately to high PUFA content in the WBM. Our study helps elucidate the metabolic regulation of fatty acids in Inner Mongolia cashmere goats.
Highlights
The Inner Mongolian cashmere goat is a local breed that provides both cashmere and meat, but it is famous for its cashmere, which is known as “soft gold” (Su et al, 2015, 2020)
The results showed that the total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content in WBM was significantly higher than that in we used longissimus dorsi muscle (WLM) (P < 0.05) (Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 2), and the levels of the PUFAs methyl linoleate (C18:2c9), cis-13-16-docosadienoic acid methyl ester (C22:2), gamma-linolenic acid methyl ester (C18:3n6), cis11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid methyl ester (C20:3n3), methyl cis5,8,11,11, and 14-eicosatetraenoic acid (C20:4) in WBM were significantly higher than those in WLM (P < 0.05)
acyl-CoA synthetase long chain family member 1 (ACSL1) could be targeted by 15 miRNAs, and enoyl-CoA hydratase short chain 1 (ECHS1) could be targeted by 23 miRNAs. These results suggest that acyltransferase 2 (ACAA2), HADHB, ACSL1, and ECHS1 may be the crucial genes mediated by miRNAs for the regulation of fatty acid metabolism
Summary
The Inner Mongolian cashmere goat is a local breed that provides both cashmere and meat, but it is famous for its cashmere, which is known as “soft gold” (Su et al, 2015, 2020). The cashmere value of this goat has often caused its meat value to be ignored. Nearly 700,000 cashmere goats are maintained, and the corresponding meat production is nearly 10,000 tons. The cashmere of this goat has been widely studied, its meat economic traits have not been reported. Fatty acids in meat are important for human health (Ladeira et al, 2018). Improving the quality of meat by increasing the concentrations of beneficial fatty acids to improve human health and reducing those of potentially detrimental fatty acids is an important undertaking (Scollan et al, 2014)
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