Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #358566
Research Project: Enhancing Genetic Merit of Ruminants Through Improved Genome Assembly, Annotation, and Selection

Location: Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory

Title: LncRNA-MEG3 promotes bovine myoblast differentiation by sponging miR-135

Author
item LIU, MEI - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item LI, BO - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item PENG, WENWEN - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item MA, YILEI - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item HUANG, YONGZHEN - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item LAN, XIANYONG - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item LEI, CHUZHAO - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item QI, XINGLEI - Collaborator
item Liu, Ge - George
item CHEN, HONG - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University

Submitted to: Journal of Cellular Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/9/2019
Publication Date: 3/18/2019
Citation: Liu, M., Li, B., Peng, W., Ma, Y., Huang, Y., Lan, X., Lei, C., Qi, X., Liu, G., Chen, H. 2019. LncRNA-MEG3 promotes bovine myoblast differentiation by sponging miR-135. Journal of Cellular Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.28469.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.28469

Interpretive Summary: Long non-coding RNA maternally expressed gene 3 (lncRNA-MEG3) is an important regulator of many biological functions. We studied the function and regulatory mechanism of lncRNA-MEG3 on bovine skeletal muscle development. These results fill our knowledge gaps and provide the foundation for further studies and applications of lncRNA’s roles in beef molecular breeding. Farmers, scientist, and policy planners who need improve animal health and production based on genome-enable animal selection will benefit from this study.

Technical Abstract: Long non-coding RNA maternally expressed gene 3 (lncRNA-MEG3) has been demonstrated as an important regulator involving in multiple biological functions such as cell differentiation, early embryogenesis and muscle development. However, the function and regulatory mechanism of lncRNA-MEG3 on bovine skeletal muscle development have not been reported. In this study, the expression profile of lncRNA-MEG3 revealed high expression level in skeletal muscle across three different developmental stages of Qinchuan cattle. Besides, lncRNA-MEG3 was observed to increasingly express during the early phase of bovine primary myoblast differentiation. By quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting assays, overexpression and RNA interference (RNAi) of lncRNA-MEG3 significantly upregulated and downregulated the myogenic differentiation marker genes, myosin heavy chain (MHC) and myogenin (MyoG), respectively. LncRNA-MEG3 was directly or indirectly verified as a miR-135 sponge. By luciferase reporter assays, overexpression of miR-135 was found to markedly inhibit the wide type of lncRNA- MEG3 but not the mutant lncRNA-MEG3 reporter. Also, the luciferase activity of miR-135 sensor could be rescued by lncRNA-MEG3 via competing for miRNA-135. Moreover, lncRNA-MEG3 significantly inhibited the targeting of miR-135 on myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) and upregulated the MEF2C mRNA and protein expressions. Ultimately, our findings suggested that lncRNA-MEG3 could regulate MEF2C as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for miR-135 and promote bovine skeletal muscle development, which is valuable for further studies and applications of lncRNA related roles in beef molecular breeding.