High-throughput sequencing reveals crucial miRNAs in skeletal muscle development of Bian chicken
Creators: name: Wu, Pengfei
name: Zhou, Kaizhi
name: Zhang, Li
name: Li, Peifeng
name: He, Mingliang
name: Zhang, Xinchao
name: Ye, Hongxin
name: Zhang, Qi
name: Wei, Qingyu
name: Zhang, Genxi
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Biophysics
subject: Biochemistry
subject: Medicine
subject: Cell Biology
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Developmental Biology

description: Growth performance is significant for chickens. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to play important roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of skeletal muscle growth. However, the mechanism of miRNAs in this process has not been elucidated.This study involved collecting leg muscle from slow- and fast-growing groups of Bian chicken at 16 weeks of age for high-throughput sequencing. A total of 42 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were identified. Among them, 22 DEMs were up-regulated and 20 DEMs were down-regulated.Biological process terms, relating to growth, were found by GO enrichment for target genes of DEMs and KEGG pathway analysis of target genes. This revealed some significantly enriched pathways closely related to skeletal muscle development, such as the calcium signalling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, lysine degradation, apoptosis and tight junctions. Network interaction analysis of DEMs and target genes showed that the top fifty hub genes were targeted by thirteen DEMs.Four important miRNAs <i>(novel_miR_158, novel_miR_144, novel_miR_291</i>, and <i>miR-205a</i>) as well as some other valuable miRNAs, such as <i>gga-miR-214</i> and <i>gga-miR-3525</i> were identified. The qPCR results of five DEMs were highly consistent with that of sequencing between the two groups, which proved the reliability of miRNA-seq.The study will help to improve the molecular mechanism of miRNAs in chickens and guide future experiments concerning miRNA function in chicken growth. Growth performance is significant for chickens. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to play important roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of skeletal muscle growth. However, the mechanism of miRNAs in this process has not been elucidated. This study involved collecting leg muscle from slow- and fast-growing groups of Bian chicken at 16 weeks of age for high-throughput sequencing. A total of 42 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were identified. Among them, 22 DEMs were up-regulated and 20 DEMs were down-regulated. Biological process terms, relating to growth, were found by GO enrichment for target genes of DEMs and KEGG pathway analysis of target genes. This revealed some significantly enriched pathways closely related to skeletal muscle development, such as the calcium signalling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, lysine degradation, apoptosis and tight junctions. Network interaction analysis of DEMs and target genes showed that the top fifty hub genes were targeted by thirteen DEMs. Four important miRNAs <i>(novel_miR_158, novel_miR_144, novel_miR_291</i>, and <i>miR-205a</i>) as well as some other valuable miRNAs, such as <i>gga-miR-214</i> and <i>gga-miR-3525</i> were identified. The qPCR results of five DEMs were highly consistent with that of sequencing between the two groups, which proved the reliability of miRNA-seq. The study will help to improve the molecular mechanism of miRNAs in chickens and guide future experiments concerning miRNA function in chicken growth.