Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (3): 490-504.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2020.03.009

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Comparative Analysis of Hypoxia-Adapted circRNAs in Brain Tissues of Zang Cattle and Sanjiang Cattle

DENG Lei1, CHAI Zhixin1, WANG Jiabo1, WANG Hui1, WANG Jikun1, WU Zhijuan1, XIN Jinwei2, ZHONG Jincheng1*, JI Qiumei2*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Animal Genetic Resources Protection and Utilization of the Ministry of Education, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610041, China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Hulless Barley and Yak Germplasm Resources and Genetic Improvement, Lhasa 850009, China
  • Received:2019-09-16 Online:2020-03-25 Published:2020-03-20

Abstract: The aim of this study was to enhance the understanding of mammals' adaptability to high altitude hypoxia environment at the circRNA level and explore the differentially expressed circRNA and related regulatory networks in brain of Zang cattle and Sanjiang cattle, which would lay the theoretical foundation for further researching the molecular regulation mechanism of circRNA in hypoxia adaptation in Zang cattle. In this study, the brain tissues of three 4.5-year-old female healthy Zang cattles and Sanjiang cattles were sampled to construct the cDNA libraries for high-throughput sequencing. Bioinformatics methods were used to analyze host genes of circRNA by GO and KEGG, and predict the target genes of differentially expressed circRNA. At the same time, the circRNA-miRNA and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA visualization regulatory networks were constructed. Moreover, the reliability of sequence data was verified by RNaseR enzyme resistance assay and real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). The results showed that 858 significantly differentially expressed circRNAs were filtered in 6 samples of Zang cattle and Sanjiang cattle, included 394 up-regulated circRNAs and 464 down-regulated circRNAs. The host genes of these differentially expressed circRNAs were involved in 49 functional subclasses, involved in 31 significantly enriched signaling pathways (P<0.05), mainly included MAPK signaling pathway, glutamatergic synapse, Rap1 signaling pathway, phospholipase D signaling pathway, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway, etc.. The result of target gene prediction revealed that 350 up-regulated and 364 down-regulated differentially expressed circRNAs were able to target 492 and 508 miRNAs, respectively. Among them, the novel_circ_017825 (235) and novel_circ_046762 (231) had the most target points to miRNAs, indicated that novel_circ_017825 and novel_circ_046762 might play an important role in the function regulation of Zang cattle brain. The circRNA-bta-miR-2284z-mRNA regulatory network showed the targeting relationship between bta-miR-2284z and circRNA, mRNA. It was speculated that the above circRNAs might indirectly affect the related targeted mRNA expression levels in Zang cattle brain by acting as bta-miR-2284z sponge. In addition, the RNaseR enzyme resistance test and qRT-PCR were performed on the randomly selected 6 circRNAs. The expression trend was consistent with the sequence results, which indicated that these obtained circRNAs were the circular transcript.The expression profile and signaling pathways of circRNA in brain tissues of Zang cattle and Sanjiang cattle were obtained by high-throughput sequencing technology, and the interaction model of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was initially constructed, which provided reliable data for further researching the biological process and molecular function of circRNA in Zang cattle hypoxia adaptability, as well as the regulation mechanism of circRNA in hypoxia adaptability in large mammals.

Key words: Zang cattle, Sanjiang cattle, hypoxia adaptability, transcriptome, circRNA

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