title: Identification and profiling of microRNAs and their target genes from developing caprine skeletal Muscle.
abstract: Goat is an important agricultural animal for meat production. Functional studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and play an important role in various biological processes. Although studies on miRNAs expression profiles have been performed in various animals, relatively limited information about goat muscle miRNAs has been reported. To investigate the miRNAs involved in regulating different periods of skeletal muscle development, we herein performed a comprehensive research for expression profiles of caprine miRNAs during two developmental stages of skeletal muscles: fetal stage and six month-old stage. As a result, 15,627,457 and 15,593,721 clean reads were obtained from the fetal goat library (FC) and the six month old goat library (SMC), respectively. 464 known miRNAs and 83 novel miRNA candidates were identified. Furthermore, by comparing the miRNA profile, 336 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified and then the potential targets of the differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted. To understand the regulatory network of miRNAs during muscle development, the mRNA expression profiles for the two development stages were characterized and 7322 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Then the potential targets of miRNAs were compared to the DEGs, the intersection of the two gene sets were screened out and called differentially expressed targets (DE-targets), which were involved in 231 pathways. Ten of the 231 pathways that have smallest P-value were shown as network figures. Based on the analysis of pathways and networks, we found that miR-424-5p and miR-29a might have important regulatory effect on muscle development, which needed to be further studied. This study provided the first global view of the miRNAs in caprine muscle tissues. Our results help elucidation of complex regulatory networks between miRNAs and mRNAs and for the study of muscle development.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling, Shaanxi, China; Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Chunlei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Xingtang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Yulong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Jiajie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Jianjin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Yongan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Xianyong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006041:Goats; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs