Open AccessSystematic analysis of the regulatory functions of microRNAs in chicken hepatic lipid metabolism
Author(s) -
Hong Li,
Zheng Ma,
Lijuan Jia,
Yanmin Li,
Chunlin Xu,
Taian Wang,
Ruili Han,
Ruirui Jiang,
Zhuanjian Li,
Guirong Sun,
Xiangtao Kang,
Xiaojun Liu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep31766
Subject(s) - microrna , lipid metabolism , biology , gene , fold change , function (biology) , metabolism , regulation of gene expression , gene expression , genetics , computational biology , bioinformatics , biochemistry
Laying performance is an important economic trait in hens, and this physiological process is largely influenced by the liver function. The livers of hens at 20- and 30-week-old stages were investigated using the next generation sequencing to identify the differences of microRNA expression profiles. Compared with the 20-week-old hens, 67 down- and 13 up-regulated microRNAs were verified to be significant differentially expressed (false discovery rate, FDR ≤ 0.05) (SDE) in the 30-week-old. We also identified 13 down- and 6 up-regulated novel differentially expressed (DE) microRNAs. miR-22-3p and miR-146b-5p, which exhibit critical roles in mammalian lipid metabolism, showed the most abundant expression and the highest fold-change, respectively. A total of 648 potential target genes of the SDE microRNAs were identified through an integrated analysis of microRNAs and the DE genes obtained in previous RNA-sequencing, including FADS1 , FADS2, ELOVL6 and ACSL5 , which are critical lipid metabolism-related regulators. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that target genes were mainly enriched in lipid-related metabolism processes. This work provides the first study of the expression patterns of hepatic microRNAs between 20- and 30-week old hens. The findings may serve as a fundamental resource for understanding the detailed functions of microRNAs in the molecular regulatory systems of lipid metabolism.