MiR‐3074‐3p promotes myoblast differentiation by targeting Cav1

Abstract

Muscle fibers are generally formed as multinucleated fibers that are differentiated from myoblasts. Several reports have identified transcription factors and proteins involved in the process of muscle differentiation to date, but the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in myogenesis is still unclear. Here, comparative analysis of the miRNA expression profiles in mouse myoblasts and gastrocnemius (GA) muscle uncovered miR‐3074‐3p as a novel miRNA showing markedly reduced expression in fully differentiated adult skeletal muscle. Interestingly, elevating miR‐3074‐3p promoted myogenesis in C2C12 cells, primary myoblasts, and HSMMs, resulting in increased mRNA expression of myogenic makers such as Myog and MyHC. Using a target prediction program, we identified Caveolin‐1 (Cav1) as a target mRNA of miR‐3074‐3p and verified that miR‐3074‐3p directly interacted with the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of Cav1 mRNA. Consistent with the findings in miR‐3074‐3p‐overexpressing myoblasts, knockdown of Cav1 promoted myogenesis in C2C12 cells and HSMMs. Taken together, our study suggests that miR‐3074‐3p is a positive regulator of myogenic differentiation by targeting Cav1.Support or Funding InformationWe thank S.‐Y. Kim (Genome Editing Research Center in KRIBB) for the advice and discussion in the miRNA analysis. This study was supported by grants from the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program (2017M3A9D8048708) of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT), the UST Young Scientist Research Program through University of Science and Technology (2019YS07) and the KRIBB Research Initiative Program.