title: A systematic analysis of the skeletal muscle miRNA transcriptome of chicken varieties with divergent skeletal muscle growth identifies novel miRNAs and differentially expressed miRNAs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Functional studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) play critical roles in a wide spectrum of biological processes including development and disease pathogenesis. To investigate the functional roles that miRNAs play during chicken skeletal muscle development, the miRNA transcriptomes of skeletal muscles from broiler and layer chickens were profiled using Solexa deep sequencing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Some miRNAs have multiple isoforms and several miRNAs* are present at higher levels than their corresponding miRNAs. Thirty three novel and 189 known chicken miRNAs were identified using computational approaches. Subsequent miRNA transcriptome comparisons and real-time PCR validation experiments revealed 17 miRNAs that were differentially expressed between broilers and layers, and a number of targets of these miRNAs have been implicated in myogenesis regulation. Using integrative miRNA target-prediction and network-analysis approaches an interaction network of differentially expressed and muscle-related miRNAs and their putative targets was constructed, and miRNAs that could contribute to the divergent muscle growth of broiler and layer chickens by targeting the ACVR2B gene were identified, which can causes dramatic increases in muscle mass.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study provides the first transcriptome profiling-based evaluation of miRNA function during skeletal muscle development in chicken. Systematic predictions aided the identification of potential miRNAs and their targets, which could contribute to divergent muscle growth in broiler and layer chickens. Furthermore, these predictions generated information that can be utilized in further research investigating the involvement of interaction networks, containing miRNAs and their targets, in the regulation of muscle development.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Rimao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dahai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D024510:Muscle Development / Q000235:genetics; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs