title: SMAD7, an antagonist of TGF-beta signaling, is a candidate of prenatal skeletal muscle development and weaning weight in pigs.
abstract: SMAD7 promotes and enhances skeletal muscle differentiation by inhibiting transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)/activin signaling and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathways. However, its function, the mechanism regulating its translation, and its association with production meat traits remain unclear in pigs. In this study, we explored SMAD7 gene spatio-temporal and tissue distribution, conducted a single nucleotide polymorphism association analysis, and examined regulation of its expression during skeletal muscle development. We found that SMAD7 was positively related to TGF-β pathway genes and mainly expressed in prenatal developing muscle, and dual luciferase and western blot assays demonstrated that SMAD7 expression was regulated by miRNA-21 at the protein level via inhibition of mRNA translation. Finally, the association analysis showed that a single nucleotide mutation (Exon 4_28816;C/A) was significantly associated with the weaning weight of piglets among Yorkshire pigs. These data indicate that SMAD7 plays a potentially important role in mammalian prenatal skeletal muscle development and is a candidate gene for promoting greater weaning weight in pig breeding.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chaoju
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zishuai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Tianjin Agriculture University, Xi Qing, Tianjin, 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jianbing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xinhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yalan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.|Agricultural Genome Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518124, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kui
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Domestic Animal Genetic Resources and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hai Dian, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China. tangzhonglin@caas.cn.|Agricultural Genome Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518124, People's Republic of China. tangzhonglin@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Zhonglin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D024510:Muscle Development; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051906:Smad7 Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D014886:Weaning
chemical_list: D051906:Smad7 Protein; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta
keywords: Association analysis; Pig; SMAD7; Skeletal muscle development; miRNA-21