Abstract
BackgroundThe temporal expression pattern of circular RNAs (circRNAs) across developmental stages is essential for skeletal muscle growth and functional analysis. However, there are few analyses on the potential functions of circRNAs in rabbit skeletal muscle development.ResultsInitially, the paraffin sections showed extremely significant differences in the diameter, number, area and density of skeletal muscle fibers of the fetus, child, adult rabbit hind legs (P < 0.01). Then, RNA-seq libraries of these three stages were constructed. A total of 481 differentially expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs) and 5,658 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Subsequently, DE-circRNAs, whose host genes were DEGs or non-DEGs, were analyzed by GO respectively. In the fetus vs. child group, up-regulated DE-circRNAs (whose host genes were DEGs) were related to muscle fiber structure, and down-regulated ones were related to mitosis. The up-regulated DE-circRNAs (whose host genes were non-DEGs) were involved in enzyme activity, methylation and glycosylation, and the down-regulated ones were involved in mitosis and catabolism. In the fetus vs. adult group, the up-regulated DE-circRNAs (whose host genes were DEGs) were related to skeletal muscle basic structure, and the down-regulated ones were also associated with cell proliferation. But the up-regulated DE-circRNAs (whose host genes were non-DEGs) were connected with regulation of histone ubiquitination, chromatin and organelles. The down-regulated DE-circRNAs were connected with the catabolism processes. In addition, novel_circ_0022663 and novel_circ_0005489, which might have coding potential, and novel_circ_0004210 and novel_circ_0001669, which might have miRNA sponge capability, were screened out.ConclusionsIn this study, hind leg muscles of fetus, child and adult rabbits were collected for paraffin section and RNA-seq to observe the structural changes of skeletal muscle and obtain circRNA expression profiles at different stages. These data provided a catalog of circRNAs related to muscle development in New Zealand rabbits, allowing us to better understand the functional transitions in mammalian muscle development.
Highlights
The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is regarded as an ideal meat-producing animal in theory, because of its short life cycle, short gestation period, large number of litters, and high feed conversion ability [1]
Circular RNA is a kind of non-coding RNA formed by covalently closing continuous loops [4]
Silencing of circSamd4 enhance the association of PUR protein with myosin heavy chain (MHC) promoter, inhibiting MHC to promote myogenesis [8]. circ-ZNF609 encode a polypeptide to control the proliferation of myoblasts [9]
Summary
The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is regarded as an ideal meat-producing animal in theory, because of its short life cycle, short gestation period, large number of litters, and high feed conversion ability [1]. CircRNAs are considered to have the ability to sponge miRNA, encode polypeptides or directly regulate transcription factors, thereby regulating a variety of processes comprised muscle development [6, 7]. Circ-calm serve as an miR337-3p sponge, and regulated the proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells at the molecular level through the circ-calm4 / miR-337-3p / Myo signal transduction axis [10]. These studies use advanced techniques to enable molecules that were once unobservable to be identified. There are few analyses on the potential functions of circRNAs in rabbit skeletal muscle development
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