Abstract
BackgroundThe Intramuscular fat (IMF) content in meat products, which is positively correlated with meat quality, is an important trait considered by consumers. The regulation of IMF deposition is species specific. However, the IMF-deposition-related mRNA and non-coding RNA and their regulatory network in yak (Bos grunniens) remain unknown. High-throughput sequencing technology provides a powerful approach for analyzing the association between transcriptome-related differences and specific traits in animals. Thus, the whole transcriptomes of yak muscle and adipose tissues were screened and analyzed to elucidate the IMF deposition-related genes. The muscle tissues were used for IMF content measurements.ResultsSignificant differences were observed between the 0.5- and 2.5-year-old yaks. Several mRNAs, miRNAs, lncRNAs and circRNAs were generally expressed in both muscle and adipose tissues. Between the 0.5- and 2.5-year-old yaks, 149 mRNAs, 62 miRNAs, 4 lncRNAs, and 223 circRNAs were differentially expressed in muscle tissue, and 72 mRNAs, 15 miRNAs, 9 lncRNAs, and 211 circRNAs were differentially expressed in adipose tissue. KEGG annotation revelved that these differentially expressed genes were related to pathways that maintain normal biological functions of muscle and adipose tissues. Moreover, 16 mRNAs, 5 miRNAs, 3 lncRNAs, and 5 circRNAs were co-differentially expressed in both types of tissue. We suspected that these co-differentially expressed genes were involved in IMF-deposition in the yak. Additionally, LPL, ACADL, SCD, and FASN, which were previously shown to be associated with the IMF content, were identified in the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network that was constructed on the basis of the IMF deposition-related genes. Three ceRNA subnetworks also revealed that TCONS-00016416 and its target SIRT1 “talk” to each other through the same miR-381-y and miR-208 response elements, whereas TCONS-00061798 and its target PRKCA, and TCONS-00084092 and its target LPL “talk” to each other through miR-122-x and miR-499-y response elements, respectively.ConclusionTaken together, our results reveal the potential mRNA and noncoding RNAs involved in IMF deposition in the yak, providing a useful resource for further research on IMF deposition in this animal species.
Highlights
The Intramuscular fat (IMF) content in meat products, which is positively correlated with meat quality, is an important trait considered by consumers
The IMF content increased slightly from the 2.5-year-old to the 7.5-year-old animals (Fig. 1a and b), Overview of RNA sequencing To assess the genes involved in IMF deposition, longissimus dorsi (LD) and adjacent intermuscular adipose tissues (AA) tissues were collected from the 0.5- and 2.5-year-old yaks for the whole-transcriptome profiling of all mRNAs and noncoding RNAs (long noncoding RNAs, circular RNAs, and microRNAs) via high-throughput sequencing
We successfully found many Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that may be associated with IMF content and constructed a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network for the yak, some limitations in this study should be noted
Summary
The Intramuscular fat (IMF) content in meat products, which is positively correlated with meat quality, is an important trait considered by consumers. The intramuscular fat (IMF) content in livestock is positively correlated with various aspects of meat quality, such as tenderness, flavor, and juiciness, and as such is one of the key traits related to consumer preference. The factors that related to the variation of IMF content in livestock include the species, breed, muscle types, gender, age, and nutrition level [2, 3]. Mechanisms such as nutrient regulation affect the deposition of IMF by affecting the transcription, mRNA expression, protein expression, and modification of genes. No effective marker for IMF content selection practices in the livestock has yet been found
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