title: miRNA-29a targets COL3A1 to regulate the level of type III collagen in pig.
abstract: COL3A1 encodes the protein, collagen type III alpha 1, which is an important component of collagen. Collagen can have a considerable effect on the processing quality of meat, and is nutritious. Bioinformatic analysis using Targetscan showed that COL3A1 could be a target gene of miRNA-29a. Moreover, we found that Laiwu pigs have higher levels of type III collagen and lower levels of miRNA-29a than Landrace pigs. Therefore, we hypothesized that miRNA-29a suppresses the expression of COL3A1 by targeting its 3'-UTR. miRNA-29a appears to play an inhibitory role in the regulation of COL3A1 in PK15 cells because of the following: (1) overexpression of miRNA-29a resulted in a significant down-regulation of COL3A1 protein levels (2) overexpression of miRNA-29a significantly decreased the level of COL3A1 mRNA. (3) The activity of a COL3A1 luciferase reporter was significant reduced by miRNA-29a. Furthermore, the levels of miRNA-29a and collagen type III in four tissues in Laiwu and Landrace pigs were consistent with the above observations. In this study, we identified COL3A1 as a direct target for miRNA-29a, which will inform further studies of meat quality.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chuan-Hao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jia-Qing
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan-Dong
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shou-Dong
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China. Electronic address: yqzeng@sdau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yong-Qing
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, PR China. Electronic address: wanghui2328@sdau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D024061:Collagen Type III / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D024061:Collagen Type III; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: COL3A1; Gene expression; Luciferase reporter assay; Pig; Type III collagen; miRNA-29a