title: Identification of MicroRNA for Intermuscular Bone Development in Blunt Snout Bream (Megalobrama amblycephala).
abstract: Intermuscular bone (IB), which occurs only in the myosepta of the lower teleosts, is attracting more attention of researchers due to its particular development and lack of genetic information. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as important regulators for biological processes. In the present study, miRNAs from IBs and connective tissue (CT; encircled IBs) from six-month-old Megalobrama amblycephala were characterized and compared. The results revealed the sequences and expression levels of 218 known miRNA genes (belonging to 97 families). Of these miRNAs, 44 known microRNA sequences exhibited significant expression differences between the two libraries, with 24 and 20 differentially-expressed miRNAs exhibiting higher expression in the CT and IBs libraries, respectively. The expressions of 11 miRNAs were selected to validate in nine tissues. Among the high-ranked predicted gene targets, differentiation, cell cycle, metabolism, signal transduction and transcriptional regulation were implicated. The pathway analysis of differentially-expressed miRNAs indicated that they were abundantly involved in regulating the development and differentiation of IBs and CT. This study characterized the miRNA for IBs of teleosts for the first time, which provides an opportunity for further understanding of miRNA function in the regulation of IB development.
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. wanshiming@webmail.hzau.edu.cn.|Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, China. wanshiming@webmail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shi-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. yishaokui@foxmail.com.|Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, China. yishaokui@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Shao-Kui
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. zhongjia@webmail.hzau.edu.cn.|Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, China. zhongjia@webmail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. nchunh44@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Chun-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. 13007100773@163.com.
authors.forename: Ning-Nan
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. ChenBX@haid.com.cn.|Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Research Center of Haid Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 511400, China. ChenBX@haid.com.cn.
authors.forename: Bo-Xiang
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. gaozexia@hotmail.com.|Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, China. gaozexia@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ze-Xia
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001846:Bone Development; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism*; D003530:Cyprinidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D029941:Fish Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Megalobrama amblycephala; intermuscular bone; microRNA; teleosts